At least 138 women pensioners have been killed in the UK where a man is the main suspect since 2020.
Like those aged between 20 and 60, older women are most likely to be killed by a current or former partner or a relative – but they are also at greater risk of being killed by a stranger.
openDemocracy found that in the deaths of 43 elderly women killed by a man since 2020 – nearly a third of cases – the suspect was their son or grandson. A further 43 women were killed by their current or former partners – 14 of whom were killed in a murder-suicide.
Three women were killed by other family members (brother, brother-in-law, and son-in-law), and 10 perpetrators were known to the women, such as a care worker or a neighbour. The remaining perpetrators were either strangers or the relationship was not specified in the data or early news reports.
We found that five elderly women have been killed by men as part of a burglary or robbery since 2020.
Previous research by the Femicide Census found that almost a quarter (23%) of women over 80 were killed by a man they did not know, compared to 7% of women aged 30-59.
Extracts from a longer article at https://www.opendemocracy.net/100-elderly-women-killed-by-men-since-2020-uk/