I begged for help': the police failings that led to UK mother's death at hands of her daughter's stalker

Lauris Saldana has visible and hidden scars from a 2022 attack by her ex-partner, Miguel Angel Florentino, which she narrowly survived. Her mother, Yolanda Saldana Feliz, was killed in the same context. A coroner ruled the killing was unlawful and would have been preventable if the Metropolitan police had taken Lauris’s domestic abuse case seriously. Lauris repeatedly begged for help and provided evidence that Florentino was a violent stalker. A prevention of future deaths report was sent to the home secretary, the mayor of London, and the Met commissioner, citing serious police failures. Lauris met Florentino in the Dominican Republic, married him in 2019, and planned to live in London, but he had a history of legal trouble and hospitalisation for mental health issues.

"Lauris Saldana has visible scars on her face, neck, arms, hand and many, many more hidden beneath her clothing. They are a reminder of the horrific attack in 2022 at the hands of her ex-partner that she narrowly survived, an attack in which her mother, Yolanda Saldana Feliz, was killed. It was an unlawful killing that would have been preventable, a coroner ruled, had the Metropolitan police taken Lauris's domestic abuse case seriously."

"Had they come to her aid when she repeatedly begged them for help with evidence her estranged husband was a violent stalker, her superhero mother would probably still be alive today. Earlier this month, the senior coroner for east London, Graeme Irvine, wrote to the home secretary, the mayor of London and Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, issuing a prevention of future deaths report highlighting a string of serious police failures that led to Yolanda's killing at the hands of Miguel Angel Florentino."

"Lauris met Florentino in her home country, the Dominican Republic, when she moved into an apartment owned by a member of his family in 2016. They got married in 2019 and planned to live in London together, where he had been working. But by the time the paperwork was approved in 2021, she had misgivings. He would fly into jealous rages and had been hospitalised in Spain, where his mother lived, due to his mental health."

"He had been in trouble with the law in the Dominican Republic and in Spain. The relationship broke down, but the visa had been expensive and Lauris wanted to make the most of the opportunity to travel. She asked her mother to come with her, to stay with Florentino. Yolanda was a good, good mother with a kind heart, who had worked as a care home nurse in the Dominican Republic, Lauris told the Guardian through a Spanish interpreter."

Read at www.theguardian.com