POLICE were slammed yesterday for blunders that left a shotgun maniac free to
blast his wife — whose traumatised schoolboy son was later found hanged.
Shattered Rachel Williams, 37 — who survived her hideous wounds — angrily hit
out as a scathing official report into last year’s horror was issued.
The grieving mum said: “Tragically there are lessons to be learned from this
report. But sadly at the cost of my beautiful son.”
Hulking husband Darren, 45, burst into the salon where his hairdresser wife
worked when she dumped him after 17 years. In the weeks leading up to him
letting rip with both barrels of a shotgun the terrified wife had called
police SEVEN times. But no one got a grip on the “escalating
situation”, the report found. Rachel survived after being hit in the leg,
which was almost blown off. Surgeons won a battle to save it.
The couple’s only son Jack, 15, died as she lay in hospital. The schoolboy was
found at the exact woodland spot where his father hanged himself hours after
the rampage weeks earlier in Newport, South Wales. The dad HAD been
arrested — twice — for assault and then threatening to kill his wife. But he
was let out on bail each time.
Yesterday’s report followed three probes — a Serious Case Review, a Domestic
Homicide Review and an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints
Commission.
The IPCC upheld four complaints against Gwent Police, saying: “No single
officer, or other professional, had an overview of the escalating situation.”
The report also said more could have been done for the tragic teen.
It said of Rachel: “Williams had always made it clear he would ‘take her with
him rather than live without her’.” The findings now clear the way for
inquests into the two deaths.