14 DAY TRIAL // 24-year-old Carl Powell received a life sentence yesterday, for the brutal murder of 28-year-old Caroline Coyne on an alleyway in Nottingham, in the UK.
Before she was attacked, she asked a passing patrol car to give her a lift home, but officers responded with "We're not a taxi service," and left her to walk home, the Mirror reports. The woman also tried flagging down a bus, but was also ignored by the driver.
She had just left a family party at her mother's residence, where she had been drinking, and felt scared to walk home alone.
As it turns out, she was right to be scared, as, just half an hour after approaching the unwilling officers, she was cornered in an alleyway and battered to death with a lump of concrete.
Caroline was the mother of two boys, one aged seven and the other five. Police believe the attacker first tried to rape the woman, and started bludgeoning her when she resisted.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges, and claimed he found no need of going around stalking women.
“I’ve no need to attack women because I can get them just like that.”
Officers Paul Traynor and Allen Purnell were not considered responsible for the woman's death.
”In the hour before she died, Caroline flagged down a marked police car, with two Special Constables inside. [...] She asked them for a lift home, something that many officers experience while on patrol. [...] After talking to her, making an assessment and knowing their vehicle should only be used for a policing purpose, they gave her the correct advice and sent her on her way. [...] There is no criticism of their actions from myself, their colleagues, or Caroline’s family,” police department Heydon stated.
After all, even though the woman was “alone and defenseless,” as the judge in this case said, the officers did suggest she should get a taxi.