The gushing obituary for a man who murdered the mother of his children

[Clymene]

I am so angry about this.

This psychotic pig broke into his ex's house in the middle of the night and stabbed her to death while the children were in the house. And then hung himself in the garage.

Why? Because she was in a relationship with another man. Regan Tierney barely gets a mention in this fawning article which makes him sound like a paragon of virtue rather than a man who carried out a brutal murder in a jealous rage.

Those poor children.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/you-need-pick-kids-up-23910194

I'm going to complain to the Press Association.

I hate that too. She'd chosen to split from him, he killed her, and now the only real representation of her - photos - will always be paired with his. She didn't consent to that. She didn't want to be with him anymore.

Luke and Ryan Hart, whose father murdered their mother and sister, worked with Level Up to create media guidelines for reporting on domestic violence. The very first of these is:

Place responsibility solely on the killer, which means avoiding speculative “reasons” or “triggers”, or describing the murder as an uncharacteristic event. Homicides are usually underpinned by a longstanding sense of ownership, coercive control and possessive behaviours: they are not a random event.

This article seems to tick all the boxes - naming it as a tragedy, speculation on triggers, the coroner says he 'just snapped', describes it as a 'turbulent relationship'. I realise most of these are quotes from other people, but the MEN had a choice not to publish them, or to counter them with facts about domestic violence.

Appalling journalism.

Thank you @AskingforaBaskin - I've found it. I'm glad to see the people of Manchester are unimpressed by the reporting too.

@tribpot. I sent IPSO a link to that guidance in my complaint. I am so appalled that this is still happening.

I’m not sure it’s the article that’s the problem so much as the stupid comments by the coroner (read the whole article all the way to the end, you’ll see what I mean). Coroner doesn’t seem to be in possession of all the facts.

Agreed.

What I find disturbing is the coroner’s comments that his actions were “completely out of character” when clearly he had terrorised the family for years.

The report itself is pretty straightforward coverage of an inquest but I am disturbed by the coroner’s comments. Sounds like he needs to upskill on reasons men murder their exes.

I think the report is well written and factual with regard to the inquest proceedings. The journalist is not responsible for the coroner’s remarks and in fact, reporting them is a very good way to publicise how outrageous those comments are.

it is just a report, a feature would delve more deeply into the case and appear more balanced. A court report is just a summary of what happened in that room.

Fair enough, I hadn't seen those guidelines, especially about not speculating on reasons why.

I still think that the use of quotation marks makes it clear that these are the words people have used, not the words of the journalist. Lots of things that people say are reported in the papers, I don't think that that means the article is an endorsement that their words are true.

I also don't think that all women need to be scared of all men, but we do need to tackle attitudes that "He would never do that; he always seems so nice. She must be lying or he must have been provoked." Some disgusting people are very personable when they want to be.

Can we remember that tne father is innocent in this please? It may well be that his comments were taken out of context from the inquest.

Nah. Sorry but screw him. Knowing what that monster did he released that statement publicly for her family to read!

They would've known what he did to her before he murdered her and they clearly coddled him if they are still that delusional to spew that BS.
Let's start holding everyone accountable for these men.
Including those who help them.

Protect the children from those people who never protected them before

What a disgusting thing to say @stopwaitingforpermissiontobeyou. This man has described his son as someone who wouldn't hurt a fly' when he knew fine well that he'd subjected his ex partner to ten years of fear and misery.

And an 'amazing father' when he murdered their mother while they were sleeping in the next room.

You should be utterly ashamed.

Ah yes, the usual "wouldn't usually hurt a fly" comments - usually made by people who haven't a fucking clue what went on in the privacy of the abusers home.

What they usually mean is "well, they never raised a hand to me". They should just keep their fucking mouths shut but these ignoramuses won't miss the opportunity for a bit of virtue signalling "oh, yeh he was a top bloke him mate - helped me fix me car exhaust for nowt once" type comments.

Shouldn't your complaint be to the Coroner rather than the newspaper? It isn't an obituary.

So this man cared so much about his children he killed their mother ...

🤦🏻‍♀️ Yeah really cared about them. The trauma that he has now placed upon them will last a lifetime. Great dad. Quick get him a medal and a fucking trophy for his grave.

Absolute waste of space and a oxygen thief. Why do these wankspangles exist. Suppose it's one less on this earth.

Absolutely appalling piece.

He was a violent man and an abuser and yet the blame for his death is placed on his victim for leaving him as he 'couldn't cope'. Couldn't cope with what? Not having someone to abuse, control and intimidate?

People have the right to leave relationships at any time and, if the result of that is violence, the blame rests solely on the violent party. And absolutely no recognition of the fact that she was killed after leaving the relationship, typically the most dangerous time for abused women in violent relationships.

I would have hoped that we had moved beyond "she made me do it" justifications by violent men.

Call him what he is - an abuser, a bully and a coward (who took the easy way out after killing his children's mother).

It was the father who made those comments. While he was clearly wrong, it's a bit of manufactured outrage to call it a fawning article based on comments made by the man's paretns.

I was going to start a thread on this. I am absolutely disgusted and have submitted a complaint too.

The coroners comments are a disgrace too.

I couldn't agree more.

Thanks for pushing back on this kind of distortion in the media, @Clymene

It's hardly digusting to point out that the statement was most likely taken from a line of questioning in an inquest.
You're talking as if the dad rang the paper up to sing his son's praises.

What you have said still doesn't justify his father's comments

None of what he said is true at all.

Her blood is on his hands

You're talking as if the dad rang the paper up to sing his son's praises.

He shouldn't have said it and the paper shouldn't have reported it.
He needed to read the room and understand that a woman has died at the hands of his son. He can think what he likes but he should have kept his mouth shut.

But he's lying @stopwaitingforpermissiontobeyou. There was a Domestic Violence Homicide Review that completed in October analysing all the different ways Regan was failed by all the agencies - including police and primary and secondary healthcare providers.

Patten punched Regan in the face so hard he broke her nose. There is no way his dad doesn't know what his son did.

Can you give me an example of how 'amazing father' and 'wouldn't hurt a fly' could be taken out of context?

Do you think he was perhaps talking about someone else? I'm baffled tbh.

The MEN is barely journalism at the best of times but this is disgusting. That poor woman, what she'd gone through, probably hoping she was finally free from him - but no, he wanted to dominate her through death just as he tried to in life, and this rag is reporting him in this glowing way.

I understand the father of the murderer is hardly going to be slating his son's actions (although should be, who can logically and genuinely comment stuff even about their own child like 'wouldn't hurt a fly' when that person has murdered someone?) but it shouldn't be included in this report of the inquest. The coroner should be much more careful with his comments too.