The Queen ‘discussed domestic violence’ with daughter of murdered woman

The Queen has been praised for her work raising awareness of domestic violence by the daughter of a woman murdered by her ex-boyfriend.

Roann Court, who was 15 when her 35-year-old mother Claire Marshall was killed by Benjamin Cooper in 2009 in Millom, Cumbria, said she spoke to Camilla about ensuring victims have a voice in death if they couldn’t in life.

Now 30 and the mother of two boys, Ms Court met the Queen when Camilla visited Swindon on Monday.

Describing their conversation outside Deacon and Son’s jewellers, which Camilla visited, she said: “It was brilliant, we spoke about domestic violence and the work that she does with that, because it’s a big thing that we support, we lost my mum 15 years ago to domestic homicide.

“I thanked her for all the work that she’s done to raise awareness for that and she thanked me for everything that I did, and it was very, very lovely, very cordial, and it was really nice.

“I wasn’t actually going to come here today, I drove past and I felt like an instinct that I had to park up and come and stand outside.

“I found out this morning that she was coming, and when I drove past I was like, you know what, I’m going to pull into the Co-op car park and stand around to wait for her, because I am so grateful for what she does for victims of domestic abuse.

“It was almost like a gut instinct was telling me to come and stand in the cold.

“I told her that I lost my mum and she said that she was so sorry for that.

“You don’t see a lot of people talking about domestic abuse, what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors.

“We do everything we do in her name, we don’t want her to be just another name on the list.

“We want her to have a voice when she didn’t have one while she was alive, so she will have one in death.”

The anniversary of her mother’s death will be on Wednesday, she added.