#CutItOut

So I met Kerri in my local nail bar. For some reason we got round to talking about hair extensions and Kerri's ears pricked up and was like 'oh you do hair extensions do you Annie?' and I was like 'yeah' so I told her a little bit about the hair extensions, how they work, whatever. A couple of weeks later, Kerri messaged me, basically wanted to book in to have a go because she was just in love with her hair extensions. So, Kerri did come in for a first appointment with me, so we got on, fitted the extensions, and yeah, she was just totally in love with them. So, once Kerri had her hair fitted, that meant she had to come and see me every four weeks for her maintenance. Needless to say, I got to know Kerri pretty well but she was quite, never really discussed or disclosed much of her private life like some of the girls do. Kerri seemed to have kept a lot of her own problems and issues to herself, not that she showed she had any issues. She was very bubbly, very fun, always very excited.

Kerri had an appointment with me in December, the beginning of December I do believe, and she'd message saying she couldn't make the appointment because she'd been in hospital all night. So, I said 'no worries, sweetheart, just, like, book in when you're ready'. I didn't know why she was in hospital, I didn't ask, it was none of my business unless she wanted to speak to me. Two days later, photographs went up on social media, by Kerri herself, of her face in a complete and utter mess. She had severe bruising to her cheekbone, a black eye that was almost completely closed, and I was devastated, I was like 'oh my god'. I would never have thought she was a victim of domestic violence because she said nothing and I didn't pick it up from her, she showed no signs of it. Maybe, I think about five days later, Kerri did book back in again. I had prepared myself, because I knew then what Kerri was going through. She attended the appointment, five o'clock on a Friday evening. It was very dark, very wet outside, just a really horrible winter's day. When I opened the door to Kerri, I just looked at her and she just, sort of, collapsed into my arms crying and I was very overwhelmed because we didn't have that type of relationship, so I thought, but for some reason Kerri decided to start talking to me and divulge what had taken place. She had described to me, in detail, what her perpetrator had done to her and I was just completely stunned, absolutely stunned, that she kept all of this to herself so well and so well hidden. Through the appointment, Kerri broke down a few times, question me how could she stop email because he was harassing her, stalking her. She had blocked him off everything social media, Instagram, Facebook, messages, WhatsApp, she blocked everything but, sadly, he was getting through by email. During the appointment, she did say to me at one point, she says 'Annie, I know he's going to kill me'. I think back now, I think at the time I just thought it was just a figure of speech, like you often hear people say 'oh if I don't do this he's going to kill me' or 'she's going to kill me', I didn't really realise just how serious them words were until two weeks later, he had indeed murdered Kerri.

I felt guilty, I felt why didn't I pick the phone up to the police. I felt, I felt lots of different emotions but more so devastated for such a beautiful young life to be taken. She knew she was a victim but I think Kerri didn't like to be labelled, that's all it was, she just wasn't a person that wanted to be labelled anything, she was just like happy-go-lucky Kerri, I'm living my life, I'm doing what I can but she had indeed tried everything to get out of the relationship because prior to her murder she had moved back in with her mum and with her two boys and she left after Christmas and she'd been back in her own flat a couple of days when he got back into her head again, took her out and then took her home and basically finished her off. Was it premeditated? Nobody knows but Kerri did, for some reason, she knew something wasn't right, she knew something terrible was going to happen. I think, my own opinion is, that she knew she was never going to be free of him, he was never going to leave her alone. He hounded her, he was only seeing her for a short 15 months, and in that 15 months he had beaten her quite a few times. He stalked her, he hounded her. She became frightened for her boys, for her brother, for her mum.

We all know how very difficult it is to get out of domestic violence relationships if you don't have the right sort of help on hand, and, sadly, as a nation of people out there that don't know where to go and we're hoping that, if we can reach enough hairdressers, beauticians, taxi drivers, anybody that's in, like, a group setting that can, that see clients on a regular basis, can see and understand, and maybe see the signs of domestic violence, and to be able to almost support, help and put them into the right direction to get the help that they need.

It's being able to have somebody to open up to and talk to, and who better than your hairdresser? We spend a lot of time in each others company. We get bored, we talk about all sorts of rubbish, but then, ultimately, we talk about the serious things, and then, unfortunately, then it is left down to that hairdresser or beautician then to take the steps, maybe do a little bit of research to find out if there's somewhere we can get this girl or this man help, you know. So I point a lot of my clients in the direction of Clare's Law. If they meet somebody new, I will advise them do Clare's Law, make sure he's ok, she's ok, you know, before you invest any time into the relationship. You know, if they've done something wrong before it will be there for you to read. It's private, nobody knows about it, your boyfriend doesn't need to know about it, your mother, your sister, nobody, it's between you and the police to use Clare's Law for what it really is because that's why it's there.