Rosie Kane MSP
Sunday Mail, 15/05/05

WORDS might not come easy when someone dies but they should still be spoken with care and consideration.

The discovery of Emma Caldwell's body last week provoked some predictable but inappropriate words. Emma had been missing for a month - her body was found in a wood near Biggar, Lanarkshire, on the anniversary of her sister's death seven years before.

The trauma of losing her sister, we are told, played a part in how Emma's life unfolded.

Emma has no secrets any more. Her recent past is out there for all to see - she had been a drug addict, lived in a hostel in Govanhill, Glasgow, slept rough and worked as a prostitute.

But drugs and prostitution were only a sad part of her life. They're not what she was or who she was.

She was a beautiful young woman who met a brutal end at the age of 27. Emma was a daughter, a sister, a friend, a real person. To sum up her too-short life with the two-word epitaph 'murdered prostitute' is wrong.

Emma was a woman and she was murdered by a man, killed because she was vulnerable.

They say 104 women are killed in Britain every year by their partner or ex-partner. Let's change the wording on that, too, because the fact is that 104 men kill their female partner or ex-partner every year. It's men who are using their power or strength to take the life of a woman and the way we describe this should reflect that, because the way we describe things in public can shape attitudes.

Another headline last week read 'PC stabbed wife 97 times'. The article went on to describe how PC Graham Jones had stabbed his wife Maria after finding out she was having an affair with a toyboy. The real story is 'man kills woman'. Yes, he was a policeman and, perhaps, she was seeing a younger man. So, split up, see a lawyer, sell the house, arrange access. Don't kill the woman just because you can.

The final and awful tragedy last week was the devastating story about Mary-Ann Leneghan, the 16-year-old who was sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered.

She was young, wilful and 'hanging about with a bad crowd' apparently. There are suspects and, hopefully, there will be convictions... and they will be men.

I only hope that when the men responsible for these three atrocious deaths appear in court we will not have to bear their lawyers making subtle - and not so subtle - references to what their victims wore or who they hung about with No one will say that Emma Caldwell deserved any of the tough blows she received in life. None of these women did or ever could.

Emma experienced loss, drug addiction, homelessness, mental health problems and men's violence - all because she was a vulnerable woman. What she needed was the proper care, resources and support services to mend her fractured life.

The men who attacked and killed these women had a choice - the women did not.

Thankfully, not all men are violent and the decent men are part of the solution.

Men can challenge other men when they are disrespectful in any way towards women. Men must challenge other men they know who are violent towards female partners.

Men should join women in challenging these attitudes in memory of these women and the many more like them.

Women should be able to go where they like, wear what they like and be safe.

So choose your words carefully, pull up those who do not and let us try to ensure these women have dignity in death, even when it was denied in life.