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Today in Focus

The women who took their own lives after domestic abuse

Today in Focus

The Guardian

News, Daily News

4.65.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Geraldine McKelvie and Hannah Al-Othman tell the stories of women who died after enduring sustained campaigns of cruelty. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:10.8

Today, the chilling number of suicides being re-investigated as manslaughter.

0:26.5

Just a quick warning before we start, there is discussion and description of domestic abuse and suicide.

0:30.7

She had a big group of friends.

0:32.4

She enjoyed going on nights out.

0:36.1

She had two sisters who she was very close to.

0:38.8

She loved spending time with her family.

0:46.6

In photos, Georgia Bartar looks happy and relaxed.

0:50.9

A mass of blonde curls bobbed at the chin, framing a wide smile.

0:57.0

And when she was little, she had all this curly hair, and they used to call a Shirley Temple, but she was very, very shy, painfully shy, her mum described her as.

1:02.0

But then she started dancing.

1:06.0

She just loved it and she was very, very good at it.

1:10.0

At one point it looked like she might have a career

1:11.7

as a professional dancer and she really gained in confidence from that. Georgia won competitions

1:17.5

and medals. She even performed at London theatres. But after one night out, she was sexually assaulted.

1:25.6

The case went to court. Her attacker was jailed. She was deeply assaulted. The case went to court.

1:28.7

Her attacker was jailed.

1:32.1

She was deeply affected by it,

1:35.4

and she was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety and depression.

1:37.8

And she sort of stopped going out.

1:41.2

She stopped dancing.

1:43.5

And soon after, she was introduced to Thomas Bignall by a friend

...

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