Huddersfield. September 2019, a 21-year-old university student has been violently stabbed multiple times in broad daylight.

I noticed two missed calls from Bethany's father. I knew instantly there was something I missed. So I phoned him up straight away. My first words were, Is Bethany okay? He said, I can't tell you that. I asked him where he was. He told me down the Elland Road Police station. We got inside this room and I looked and I saw Bethany's father, absolutely in bits, totally distraught. And I kept saying to this guy, Just tell me she's okay. And then he said the words, No parents ever wants to hear and should have to hear. She didn't survive her injuries. And straight away, I said, It's that Paul Crowther. And they nodded. And I said, She came to you for help. And they just put their heads down. I died. In that moment, I died.

The killer, Paul Crowther, Bethany's former boyfriend, was arrested in less than an hour after a short car chase. Krauather was well known to the police. Over the previous seven years, he had been arrested nine times under the Mental Health Act, but was never sectioned despite being the name suspect in domestic incidents with two different previous partners, and had been served with a restraining order four years previously.

Two days to the Coast, Coast.

Night cycle practice. His victim, Bethany Hills, and three other people had made complaints about his threats to harm or kill others in the four weeks before she was killed. Bbc Newsnight is aware that Bethany was at least one of nine women who were killed by a partner, ex-partner, or a relative after they or a third party went to West Yorkshire Police regarding the perpetrator between 2019 and 2023. And in some of the cases, the abuser was known to the police. Experts say that the police, amongst other things, didn't undertake risk assessments properly. Families have told us that had the police responded appropriately, these women might still be alive today. In the case of the killing of Bethany Fields, the police refer themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, who found a number of failings, including staff shortages, a failure to properly use police intelligence to join the dots, a failure to recognize that a serious crime of stalking and/or coercive control had been potentially committed, which could have led to an arrest, and a failure to properly complete a risk assessment which would have categorized Bethany as high risk. The police watchdog inquiry also found that the officer who had been left to look after the case was a probationary officer who had only been working without direct supervision for a period of two weeks.

It needed a senior officer. But my daughter put her trust, her life in their hands, as far as I'm concerned. They failed my daughter. West Yorkshire Police failed my daughter.

Professor Jane Moncton-Smith is a forensics expert who has researched and written extensively on interpersonal violence and has advised a number of police forces, including West Yorkshire.

People don't always make death threats to each other. That's not a normal part of a relationship. We know that in risk assessment, all of the research is telling us that somebody starts talking about death in response to a separation or a breakup. That is potentially homicidal ideation. You need to use that information as well to inform your risk assessment. And if they're not doing that, then that's a real problem with the training. If the risk assessment process itself isn't effective, it could be much worse than a waste of time. It could actually put that person in more danger.

Bethany's family are not alone in saying West Yorkshire police let their daughter down. Last year, Newsnight spoke with Yasmin Javed, whose daughter Fawzia was murdered on a trip to Edinburgh when her partner pushed her off a cliff on Arthur's seat, killing her and her unborn child. He was convicted of her murder and later tried to appeal his sentence, which was rejected. Fawzia, like Bethany, had reported domestic abuse to West Yorkshire police, in her case, twice. Once in April 2021, and six days before she was killed in September.

The first time around that the police came to see Fawzia, they told Fawzia that she was medium risk. And then shortly after that, they reassessed her and regraded her to high risk. And that was information that was never communicated to Fawzia or myself, which obviously would have made a big difference because Fawzia went back thinking, I'll be fine. The second time around, the police officer that came to take a statement from Fawzia, she never communicated to Fawzia that now that she was going to leave the abuser, she was at high risk. And also the fact that she was pregnant, she was at high risk. Had all this information been communicated to Fawzia, there is no way that Fawzia would have gone on that trip to Edinburgh. She was sensible. She was sensible, and she would have taken that on board. She would have never have put her life and her baby's life at risk.

How does this all make you feel?

Really angry, really upset. Fosy's death could have been prevented. I've lost my only child and her baby in horrific circumstances. That's something you'll never get over. Today, Fosy's baby would have been two years old. An innocent life. He never got to live.

West Yorkshire police told BBC Newsnight.

The circumstances prior to the murder of Fawzia Javed, including the reports of domestic abuse that she made to West Yorkshire police, are the subject of an ongoing domestic homicide review.

I think there were opportunities to prevent the deaths of Fawzia and Bethany, and it wasn't necessarily simply through the safeguarding of those two women, but the management of those two men.

Carmen Avanha, a charity based in West Yorkshire that deals with honor-based abuse, has taken part in three domestic homicide reviews, including the current inquiry into Fawzia Javed.

We see a repeat of key recommendations coming up-time and time again of things that we need to do, which by the time you're in your third domestic homicide review, you're questioning why is this still coming up as a recommendation?

West Yorkshire Police told this program.

West Yorkshire Police Safeguard and Governance have worked closely with Carmen Avarna over the last two years. The force has also been working with Professor Jane Hilton Smith in delivering conference and training courses around the eight stages of domestic homicide.

West Yorkshire Domestic Abuse Policy identifies threats to kill, a previous history of domestic abuse, and a history of mental health and suicide as warning markers, which should result in a high risk assessment. Bethany was assessed as being a medium risk. Just over two weeks before she was killed, Bethany contacted police again about Paul Crowther, who had been reported missing. In a telephone call, recorded and handed to the police watchdog, the IOPC, she said, In all honesty, he should have been sectioned a long time ago now. In the last few months, the amount of times I've spoken the police when he has tried killing himself, the amount of death threats he's made. West Yorkshire police told BBC Newsnight.

As a result of both a domestic homicide review and the IOPC investigation conducted following Bethany's murder, West Yorkshire police has accepted and implemented all recommendations raised through these reports.

When Bethany's killer finally faced justice, he was given a manslaughted conviction for diminished responsibility, and the judge ordered him be detained in hospital as part of his minimum sentence of 12 years.

No way should it have ever been manslaught. It was premeditated murder. He's evil, pure evil, wicked, a master manipulator, and a very, very, very dangerous man who should never, ever be released. Never.

West Yorkshire police, in their statement, told this Our sympathies go out to the families of Bethany Hills and Fawzia Javed for the devastating and tragic losses they have suffered.

During summer 2023, the force trained 3,250 frontline officers and staff in the domestic abuse matters training.

The police watchdog concluded that despite a catalog of errors and oversights, it was impossible to say whether in Bethany's case, the tragic outcome could have been avoided. But the families of the victims in West Yorkshire are still asking, why were key warning signs overlooked? And why couldn't the police act?