Artist shares portraits of women killed by men since March 2020

Women who have been killed at the hands of men have been remembered in a moving series of portraits raising money for charity. 

British artist and illustrator Henny Beaumont, from , painted all 118 women who were killed and murdered by men between March 2020 and March 2021, including sisters Sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, who were found stabbed to death in Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north-west London.

Beaumont said she got the idea for the series when MP Jess Phillips named all the women who had been killed from male violence in a passionate speech on on March 8 2020, in the wake of ‘s murder.   

Everard, who was abducted, raped and killed by police officer Wayne Couzens on March 3 was among the 119 women who were killed by men since Phillips’ similar speech in March 2019. 

Beaumont, who is working with the Centre for Women’s Justice and the Femicide Census, has raised £9.548 for her series so far through her  page, said she wants to make the other women, whose death have been less mediatised, ‘visible.’

Here, Henny shares portarits of 12 of the people featured Disappearing Women series, whose lives where dramatically cut short.  

June 2020: Amy-Leanne Stringfellow, 26, from Doncaster

Terrence Papworth, 45, from Doncaster, was charged with the murder of his girlfriend and mother-of-one Amy-Leanne Stringfellow, 26, in June 2020.

Private Stringfellow enlisted in the Army in 2010 and completed assignments with 3rd Battalion the Rifles 3 RIFLES in Edinburgh and Chilwell.

She also served a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2012 as part of the Operation Herrick 16 deployment.

Amy had been promoted to Lance Corporal but was discharged before taking up the post.

The fitness fanatic rejoined as a Volunteer Reservist in 2017 and also worked as a personal trainer. 

She was found critically injured in Papworth’s home in Balby, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on June 5. 

Emergency services battled to save the fitness trainer, but she was declared dead at the scene.

Papworth was charged with her murder two days later.He was found dead in his cell at Armley Prison, in Leeds, West Yorkshire in November 2020, days before he was due to stand trial.

Papworth and Ms Stringfellow, who had a young daughter, had been in a relationship since October 2019 but they had not moved in together when the attack happened. 

She had travelled the four miles from her home in Doncaster to see Papworth during lockdown.

After her death, South Yorkshire Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over prior contact they had with Ms Stringfellow. 

Tributes flooded in from heartbroken loved ones after her tragic death.

Her devastated mother Jacquie said her ‘heart stopped beating’ the day her daughter died at an emotional vigil for Amy.

She added: ‘Amy wasn’t loved by one, or hundreds, but thousands. No other woman, as long as I live in Doncaster, will have to go through this again. Amy was a strong character.

September 2020: Poorna Kaameshwari Sivaraj, 36, and Kailash Kuha Raj, three, from London 

Poorna Kaameshwari Sivaraj, 36, from Brentford, was murdered by her husband Kuha Raj Sithamparanathan, 42 in September 2020, alongside her three-year-old son, Kailash Kuha Raj, and the family’s pet cockapoo.  

They were last seen alive on September 21 and could have been murdered shortly after that.  

Sithamparanathan lived two weeks with the bodies. 

Scotland Yard officers initially received a call late on Sunday 4 October from a family member raising concerns about the welfare of Mrs Sivaraj.

They went to the home several times in the following hours but got no reply, and fears heightened after speaking to neighbours so they forced entry on October 6.

Sithamparanathan then stabbed himself to death.

Neighbours said the couple, Malaysian-born Tamils who wed in Kuala Lumpur in 2015, were frequently heard arguing.  

One said at the time: ‘Things got really bad between them, especially during the lockdown.

‘They are one of the few couples with a young child in our block and you could hear them screaming at each other, sometimes for very long periods.One day she threw his stuff out of the window and told him to take his medicine.’  

The Metropolitan Police said that post-mortem examinations found that Kailash died from compression to the neck, and both his parents from knife wounds. 

December 2020: Helen Bannister, 48, from Swansea

Helen Bannister, 48, from Swansea, was attacked by her boyfriend, Jonathan Campbell in their home when he found compromising pictures on her phone in December 2020. 

Rather than calling for help right away, Campbell stripped and bathed Bannister to get rid of the blood, before sitting her on the settee. 

He then packed his bag and went out to buy booze before checking into a hotel.He left a note apologising for what he had done before spending the night smoking marijuana with another, unnamed woman.    

Campbell was arrested and claimed he had head-butted Helen twice after catching her cheating on him.  

The court heard in May 2021 that he had attacked the mother-of-two previously and at the time of the murder was on licence after being released early from prison. 

The court heard that he had told police ‘everything got out of hand’ and that he ‘didn’t want to hurt her like that.’

In a victim impact statement, Ms Bannister’s daughter, Sarah Jane Bannister, told how she predicted her mother would die at the hands of Campbell, her boyfriend of five years.

‘I hated him from the start,’ she said.’I knew he had hit her and put her in hospital in the past.

‘I remember telling her that the next phone call I would get would be that you would be in a body bag.

‘I had a phone call to say my mother was in hospital in a bad way.

‘When I saw her, her face and eyes were so swollen she looked like the Elephant Man.’

Judge Paul Thomas QC sentenced Campbell to life in prison after he admitted murder. 

June 2020, Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, from London 

Sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were reported missing on June 6 after their disappeared following a gathering in Fryent Country Park to celebrate Bibaa’s birthday. 

The sisters, who had been celebrating Ms Henry’s birthday with friends, were found the following day by Ms Smallman’s boyfriend. 

The sisters’ bodies were discovered concealed in bushes near a picnic spot where they had been celebrating in Wembley.   

When she was found, Nicole had stab wounds to her chest, back, arms, legs and hands. 

She was stabbed 28 times, the prosecution said, and was killed by two wounds to the lungs – one of which had penetrated her breast bone with ‘severe force’.

Her sister Bibaa suffered a total of eight injuries. Three had penetrated the heart and lungs and would have killed her.

Pathologists said both women tried to shield themselves from the frenzied attack, but to no avail. 

Danyal Hussein was accused of murdering the sisters in a demonic pact to win the lottery when we went on trial in June 2021. 

Armed with a knife bought in Asda, the teenager launched a ‘terrifying’ attack on the two women. 

Having cut his hand in the process, he then dragged their bodies into bushes without a thought for their dignity, prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC said. 

Hussein used his own blood to sign an agreement with a ‘demon’ named Lucifuge Rofocale promising to ‘sacrifice’ women in exchange for the Mega Millions Super Jackpot.

In another note, he offered blood for ‘sexual potency’ and to make a girl at his school fall in love with him, jurors were told.

The court heard CCTV showed Hussein leaving and entering the park and his blood and DNA were found at the scene.

Hussein was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 35 years behind bars on October 28 2021. 

February 2021: Sophie Moss, 33, from Darlington  

Sophie Moss, a vulnerable 33-year-old mother of two, was killed by her boyfriend Sam Pybus after he applied pressure to her neck during sex and then claimed it was consensual. 

Married Pybus told police he and Ms Moss had been in a casual relationship for three years, and that she encouraged him to strangle her during consensual sex.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Pybus had drunk 24 bottles of lager when he applied pressure to her neck for tens of seconds or even minutes at her flat in Darlington. 

Pybus woke up and found Ms Moss naked and unresponsive but did not dial 999, waiting in his car for 15 minutes before driving to a police station to raise the alarm. 

Married Pybus told police he and Ms Moss had been in a casual relationship for three years, and that she encouraged him to strangle her during consensual sex. 

The 32-year-old claimed to have little recollection of what happened but said Sophie had ‘encouraged and enjoyed’ having pressure applied to her neck. 

Pybus was charged with murder but entered a not guilty plea, which was accepted by the prosecution at Teesside Crown Court in July.He was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail. 

Instead, he admitted ‘unlawful killing’ and pleaded guilty to manslaughter during his court appearance, wearing a grey suit and white shirt.   

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was not sufficient evidence to support a charge of murder because there was nothing to suggest he intended to kill her or cause serious harm. 

March 2020: Kelly Stewart, 41, from London

Kelly Stewart, 41, was found battered to death in a churchyard in Plaistow, east London, on March 26 2020. 

At the time of her death, Kelly, who was originally from Newham, was homeless.

Officers believe she was attacked between 12.45am and 1.45am. 

She was subject to a frenzied attack by Kieran Rifat, 22, who then dragged her to an alleyway and assaulted her again with a large gas canister.

The two knew one another through the Bridges Project, a charity providing free porn breakfast meals to the homeless community at the church. 

Rifat had had an argument with Ms Stewart’s ex-boyfriend, Henry Donker, and then ‘took it out’ on her because Mr Donker was ‘substantially’ bigger in build. 

On the morning after the attack, pastor Edwin Mbugua-Kibathi noticed her scattered clothing and a blood trail and called police who found Ms Stewart’s body covered in flies.

Prosecutor Charlotte Newel said her injuries were ‘so severe that her skin was sunken into her skull’.  

Her body was found on the grounds of  Memorial Community Church in Barking Road, Plaistow and it was ruled she had died of severe head injuries 14 hours earlier.  

In February, Rifat was jailed for life at the Old Bailey for the murder.  

September 2020: Dr Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and Vian Mangrio, 14, from Burnley

Dr Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and her 14-year-old daughter Vian Mangrio, were murdered by handyman Shahbaz Khan, 52, at their home in Burnley on September 30 last year.

CCTV footage showed at the time that someone arrived at the house at around 11:50am, and not leaving before 10pm the same day. 

Police visited the mother and daughter’s home in early October 2020 for a welfare check and discovered their bodies. 

Vian’s body was downstairs, while Saman’s body was upstairs. 

Khan pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court in June this year, after initially blaming a ghost named Robert for the appalling crimes, which has seen his wife Rabia Shahbaz, 45, jailed for 30 months for giving him an alibi.

Khan was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 34 years in jail. 

Khan had tried to set them alight to get rid of evidence and make their death seem like an accident. 

He also tried to frame the scene as a murder suicide to make it look like Saman had killed her daughter. 

A post-modern examination concluded that Saman was strangled, possibly with a ligature.  

Khan admitted he was that person, but claimed the mother and daughter were still alive when he left the property. 

At his trial on October 5 this year, prosecution argued that Khan drugged Saman by mixing Diazepam, Rose wine, fruit and a spice into a smoothie.Once she was drugged, and unable to fight back, he had killed her.

Vian returned home from school at around 3.25pm that day, at which point she was also drugged and killed. 

A quantity of jewellery belonging to Saman, worth an estimated £27,000, was later found in Khan and Shahbaz’s loft by police. 

6.Rosemary Hill, 87  – June 2020

Retired musician Rosemary Hill was just cutting herbs from a neigbhour’s garden when she was bludgeon to death with a cricket bat by Guy Unmack, 46, in a random attack in Reigate, Surrey on June 21, 2020. 

Rosemary was rushed to hospital after members of the public raised the alarm, but died of her injuries five days later.

Unmack received a life sentence for the crime and was told by Guildford Crown Court he will serve at least 19 years in jail in June 2021. 

Unmack was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008 and had been under the care of the Reigate Community Mental Health team at the time of the atack. 

During the trial, the court heard that Unmack had attacked women before, including an elderly woman with who he had previously struck up a relationship.

Sentencing Unmack, Judge Durran told him at the time: ‘The attack was unprovoked and you have never explained why you attacked Ms Hill.

‘The jury rejected the defence that you were experiencing a psychotic episode but I accept that a mental disorder has affected your life for over 20 years.

‘No sentence that this court can pass will replace the experiences Rosemary’s family has been through due to her death.’

The victim’s daughter Deborah Zachery paid tribute to her mother: ‘Our mother was attacked on a quiet residential road 150 yards from her home.

‘The experience had a dramatic and chaotic impact on our work and personal lives.We never imagined there would be a murder in our family and especially that Rosemary would the victim,’ reported at the time. 

8.Jackie Hoadley, 58 – July 2020

Jackie Hoadley, 58, was stabbed to death by her estranged husband Ray Hoadley, 62 and was found in a pool of her own blood at their Eastbourn home on July 5. 

The couple had been married 28 years and have two severely disabled adopted children – Matthew, 16, and Ellie, nine – who require constant care.

But prosecutors today told a jury that the relationship had broken down and pointed to a row over money as Hoadley’s motivation for killing his estranged wife,’ reported in January.

Jackie’s body was found by her daughter’s carer, who sounded the alarm. 

Hoadley, 62, was told at his sentencing at Lewes Crown Court that he will serve at least 26 years. 

The couple adopted Matthew in 2007 and Ellie in 2014, who both had complex care needs requiring 24 hour around the clock supervision. 

Ellie, who is legally blind, was in the room next-door when Jackie’s body was found. 

At Hoadley’s trial in January, the court heart he has struggled with mental health prior to the murder and had been staying in a psychiatric hospital in Chichester, West Sussex, after he’d tried to take his own life in April 2020.  

When he was released from hospital, he moved to a multi-occupancy house in Eastbourne. 

It is believed Hoadley killed Jackie over money worries, when she refused to sign a financial agreement he crafted to divide their assets.

Basing their argument on dashcam footage and nearby CCTV footage, the prosecution argued Hoadley drove to Jackie’s house and arrived at around 11:30pm, and left before 1:30pm. 

It is believed he murdered his estranged wife during that two-hour window.  

Prosecution also believed Hoadley drove to the beach to get rid of a pair of scissors which could be the crime’s weapon.  

Hoadley tried to cover up the crime and called Jackie’s phone several times the next day and left messages before calling emergency services. 

Hoadley, 62, was told at his sentencing at Lewes Crown Court that he will serve at least 26 years. 

9.Maryam Ismail, 57  – April 2020 

Maryam Ismail, 57, was bludgeoned to death by her husband Hussein Egal at their flat in Edmonton on April 6 2020. 

The Old Bailey heard in February 2021 that the 66-year-old bus driver used several weapons, including a knife, hammer, meat cleaver, pots, pans, table leg and a ladder, to kill Maryam after a violent row erupted, reported at the time. 

Egal, who denied murder, claimed he had contracted coronavirus and suffered ‘delusion’ when he killed his wife.  He was jailed for life at the term of his trial.

A friend speaking via video link during the trial said the couple seemed to get along and to have a ‘blissful’ marriage, and never heard Maryam complain of issues throughout their 17-year-long marriage. 

Egal claimed he contracted the coronavirus and had stopped working at the time of the attack, but no evidence was submitted that confirmed his claim. 

He claimed Maryam told him to ‘die on the streets’ when he told her he had caught the virus, because she was afraid of getting sick. 

He said he had diminished responsibility because he suffered from paranoid  schizophrenia, however, his medical records showed no history of mental illness.  

Allison Hunter QC, prosecuting, said during the trial: ‘Upon his arrival [to the police station] Egal told the officer who opened the van door that he had coronavirus and that the officer should stay away from him.

‘He said it was the coronavirus that had made him crazy and kill his wife.He said that when he told his wife she said he could get out and die on the street and that he had said to her ”I will kill you before that” and so he did.

‘He stated that it definitely happened that Maryam had stood over him and physically tried to get him out of the property.’

The bus driver also claimed he was ‘frightened’ and scared of Maryam but could not remember the specifics of what had happened.  

He refused to comment when asked why he had attacked Maryam so violently, to the point where one of her ears was ripped off, and why he had stabbed her ankles.  

11.Paula Leather, 56 – November 2020

Asda worker Paula Leather, 56, was stabbed by her jealous husband, George Leather, 60, more than 300 times at their home in Prescot, Merseyside in November 2020 

George, who had bene with Paula more than 30 years, was said to have stabbed her face 100 times in a blind rage. 

The barbaric killing left the mother-of-three and grandmother so mutilate she was unrecognisable and could only be identified through a tattoo on her arm. 

Leather was sentenced to 18 years in jail for the savage crime at Liverpool Crown Court in April. 

Paula’s three children Jason, Jessica and Matthew told the court how their father was a vile bully who subjected their mother to a cycle of abuse over two decades,  reported at the time. 

Posting a message on a Justgiving page, aiming to raise money for the organisation Refuge, the family said: ‘In November we lost our lovely Mum/ Friend/ Relative/ Nanny Paula to domestic violence.We will miss her beautiful smile and kindness that showed no bounds.

‘Paula was devoted to her family and fiercely loyal to her friends and spread love to anyone she met. She will be missed beyond words and all we can hope is that your donations help someone in her situation to escape and find a safe space.

‘One in four women will experience domestic violence at some point in their lifetime and two women are killed each week in England and Wales by a current or former partner.

‘Refuge supports around 6,000 women & children on any given day, experiencing domestic and sexual violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, stalking, trafficking, prostitution & so-called ‘honour’ based violence.

‘By kindly donating today you are helping to save and change the lives of thousands of women and children escaping domestic violence.’

12.Ranjit Gill, 43 – February 2021 

It is believed Ranjit Gill, 43, was murdered by her husband Anil Gill, 46, in Beresford Close, Emerson Valley in Milton Keynes. 

Her body was found in their 300,000 home in February, with police drawing the conclusion she had been killed by Gill. 

At his trial in October, court heard Gill was believed to have taken a large knife from his kitchen to stab Ranjit 18 times, reported.  

Luton Crown Court heard Ranjit died from four severe injuries to her chest.It was said during the trial that he had been a bully to his wife in the years leading up to the attack. 

Ranjit’s sister advised her to leave Gill before the attack, but she said she was afraid he’d hunt her down and kill her if she did. 

Gill admitted manslaughter, but said he was not guilty of murder because he had ‘lost control.’

The couple had been happy in Bedford in the early years of her marriage, but the relationship deteriorated after they moved to Milton Keynes, when Gill lost his well-paid job and became long-term unemployed.  

Ranjit suffered from health issues and was on sickness benefits. 

Court heard how over the years, Gill grew increasingly violent towards his wife, striking her on several occasions, slapping her and shouting at her. 

Police had been called to the couple’s home after domestic rows erupted several times. 

It was believed Ranjit was having an affair with a drug dealer and wanted to divorce Gill. 

It is believed that on the eve of Ranjit’s death, the couple had £300 worth of cocaine delivered to their home. 

Gill was questioning his sexuality at the time he killed his wife and was looking at gay porn sites hours before the attack.