Irresponsible ?

Last week, David Oakes was sentenced to life imprisonment. He’d taken a shotgun to his ex-partner and their two-year-old daughter, supposedly because he was ‘afraid’ of losing them. He then (allegedly) tried to kill himself with the same shotgun, and failed.

In today’s news, Oakes’ ex-wife has come forward, saying that Oakes had also been abusive towards her while they were married.

His ex-wife said the “total control freak” was regularly violent and on one occasion pulled a gun on her.

“He pushed me to the sofa, pulled a gun out of his pocket, put one bullet in the barrel and spun the barrel,” she said. He kept clicking it to my head, he held the gun straight to my head. It didn’t go off, so he went off and calmed down and came back later as if nothing had happened.”

Now maybe I’m missing something, but surely that’s attempted murder ?

I do understand that an abused partner doesn’t always go to the police – but it could be done anonymously via Crimestoppers etc. And if she had reported his instability to the police, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been allowed to have a registered shotgun…