Family of murdered Houston mother urges government to act

Sean Hunter, the brother of Stacy Hunter, spoke following a summit with John Swinney to tackle violence against women and girls.

After the meeting, the First Minister said in Parliament that he expected people accused of domestic abuse to be GPS-tracked starting next year, a key feature of “Stacy’s law”.

Stacy was found dead at a cottage in the Renfrewshire area, on July 27.

Police treated her death as murder.

Her estranged husband, Jim Mair, 43, was also found dead at the scene, with his death being treated as unexplained.

Mair had been released on bail after appearing in court weeks before, accused of assaulting her.

Speaking to the Press Association at Holyrood, Mr Hunter said Mair should not have been released.

He said: “If this had been committed by somebody to a stranger in the middle of the street, and they tried to strangle them to death, I don’t think they would have been released the next day. So why, because it was somebody that she knew, would it be okay?”

Asked if the Scottish Government was doing enough to tackle violence against women and girls, Mr Hunter said: “No, absolutely not.”

He said there needed to be “urgent” and “imminent” action for the people “being tormented right now”.

It comes as the Glasgow Times launched a campaign last month to call on everyone, from individuals to the authorities, to take action to ensure a safer Glasgow for women and girls.

Mr Hunter warned of the dire consequences if urgent action is not taken by the Government.

He said of the summit: “It was pointed out the amount of names that are in the headlines at the moment in the last few weeks of deaths of women, and I think that’s the consequence – we’re going to get more names.

“Unfortunately, it’s inevitable, and I think the difference is that rather than just accepting there are going to be names and do nothing about it, accept that we can potentially lessen the amount of names.”