The family of Louth murder victims Bethany Vincent and her nine-year-old son Darren Henson believe their daughter was “brainwashed” and they want to help others look out for signs of control in relationships.
Boulton carried out the brutal killings just a day after sending his former girlfriend Bethany a text which read “nightmare on Holme Street”. The next day he repeatedly stabbed Bethany and her son Darren, known to his family as DJ, after walking 28 miles to their house in High Holme Road in Louth.
The 30-year-old was given two life sentences earlier this month and must serve a minimum of 40 years in jail before he is eligible to apply for parole, and he may never be released.
Daniel Boulton must serve at least 40 years in jail. | Photo: Lincolnshire Police
In an interview with ITV, Bethany’s dad Darren Vincent said: “We’ll never get Bethany and DJ back, but I think there are things that people can take away from what’s happened to us, things they might relate to, that might help make a difference in the future.
“After we lost them, some lovely people in Louth created a new charity in their memory called ‘Be Their Voice’. We, and DJ’s father Kieran, are fully behind it and it sums up exactly what we intend to do – be their voice and try to help others.”
Flowers, candles and photographs were laid by a tree as a vigil was held in memory of alleged Louth murder victims Bethany Vincent and her nine-year-old son Darren Henson. | Photo: Graeme Whitworth
Bethany’s parents were not aware of the extent of Boulton’s criminal history when he began dating their daughter, who had left the relationship at the beginning of last year.
He was previously convicted of offences, including assaults on Bethany, and was twice ordered by the court not to contact her. At the time of the murder’s a restraining order was still in place.
A community in shock. Tributes outside the home of Bethany Vincent and her son Darren Henson, who died on Monday night. | Photo: Jon Aron
Bethany’s mother Caroline said Boulton encouraged her daughter to “give up her job which she loved” and also “gradually isolated her from us”.
She said: “We tried to tell her it wasn’t right, but it was like she was brainwashed and the more we pushed, the more she swayed towards him. It was all about control, and we just want other people to look out for signs like that.”
Caroline added: “For someone with a history like his to still be able to roam the streets and keep getting away with a slap on the wrist is just wrong.
“I’m not saying I blame anyone else for what happened, but we do believe there were some failings. Every department had details of him on their files so I think communication needs to be so much better within the whole system to try to stop things like this happening.”
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Nominations are open for schools and education settings to be recognised in the 2022 Lincolnshire Education Excellence Awards.
The event is organised by Stonebow Media, publishers of The Lincolnite, to celebrate the best school and teachers in Greater Lincolnshire.
The headline sponsors making the awards possible are Lincoln College Group.
Twelve categories are now open for nominations. The deadline for nominations is June 3, with a judging lunch scheduled for June 7.
Nominations are open from parents, carers, friends, families or education settings themselves, so if you know someone who deserving of winning now is the time to vote!
The awards ceremony will be held at the Engine Shed on July 7.
It’s been a week since the controversial statue of Margaret Thatcher was installed in Grantham’s St Peter’s Hill.
The £300,000 bronze monument immediately caused a stir and debate from both supporters and opponents of the first female Prime Minister of the UK.
Within hours of its 7am installation last Sunday, it had already been egged by a man later revealed to be 59-year-old Jeremy Webster, a deputy director at the Attenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester.
Mr Webster’s mother-in-law recently described his actions as “childish”.
Quoted in the MailOnline she said: “Margaret Thatcher lasted a long time in power. She was a trailblazer as the first woman prime minister and she had such energy, even though I know she slept very little.
“I’m very surprised to hear about all of this [egg throwing]. I’m going to have to call my daughter. I wouldn’t have thought Jeremy would be the sort of person to do this. It seems very childish to me – he has a responsible job.”
There have been reports of other antisocial behaviour taking place including people urinating up the statue, but investigations into these are yet to be confirmed by officials.
Away from the statue itself, others took to social media to react to the new monument.
Twitterer @BolsoverBeast thought Mr Webster’s actions should be expanded as a way to… get more people involved?
I think it would be a good idea to put Thatcher’s statue on a low loader and tow it slowly around the country so that we all have a chance to throw something at it. pic.twitter.com/uftMqr0LgR
— Chloe Schlosberg (@ChloeSchlosberg) May 19, 2022
Some called back to the fate of other statues
@Irritatedllama called back to the fate of slave trader Edward Colston who was thrown into the Bristol Harby in June 2020.
It's absolutely disgraceful that people are throwing eggs at the Margaret Thatcher statue in Grantham! We need to deploy a taskforce to give it jolly good wash!#Granthampic.twitter.com/RKftKUls4u
It wasn’t long before a parody account of the statue was set up on Twitter – nor before “she” was interacting with other parody accounts.
It was awful. I could see almost all of Grantham
— That Statue of Thatcher (@thatcher_statue) May 18, 2022
A… positive view?
There were supporters of the statue, however, Darren Grimes from GBNews was one of the few popular posts calling on people not to “give in to threats of petty vandalism”. He later posted the statue should be in parliament – where it was previously rejected from.
I honestly think Margaret Thatcher would have found this first round of petty vandalism of her statue to be utterly hilarious.
The statue looks absolutely glorious.
Almost a decade on from her passing, she’s still winding them up!
Some, like @Jonnyhibberd were more measured in their response.
I don't see a problem with a Thatcher statue and I also don't see a problem with people throwing eggs at it. Thatcher is an important part of our history, and so is what a lot of people thought about her.
— Jonathan Hibberd 🇺🇦 (@Jonnyhibberd) May 18, 2022
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