• Killer “carried knives at all times” and held one to his mother's throat
  • Teen's mum tried her best to manage 'threatening and difficult man' and sought help
  • Concerns about sexual exploitation of 15-year-old girl were not followed up
  • Child protection enquiry opened and closed on same day in December 2010
  • Brother of teen told police Mills was trying to procure her to a lorry driver for booze money
  • Arson-threats should be flagged up in domestic abuse probes

THE mother who was murdered alongside her daughter and grand-daughter when killer Carl Mills torched their Cwmbran home "tried her best' to manage the "threatening and difficult man" who fathered the baby he then murdered.

A Domestic Homicide Review, commissioned by Torfaen council, looked into the death of Kim Buckley.

It highlights that on September 18 2012, emergency services were called to a fire at the Buckley family home in Cwmbran, which claimed the lives of Kim, her daughter Kayleigh and granddaughter Kimberley.

In July 2013, Carl Mills was convicted of their murders and was given a 30 year sentence, which was later increased to 35 years following an appeal by the solicitor general on the grounds of undue leniency.

Appeal court judge Lord Thomas said: “The murders of three members of the family took place against a background of controlling and abusive behaviour by the offender.”

The report explains that Kayleigh and Mills met in 2010 through Facebook, when she was 15, and that according to family and friends, she was a “naive young woman”.

Mills, age 26, was described as a “loner” by his mother, who also said that the teenager used fire as a threat to control her.

The report states: “[Mills] had set fire to her bed when he assumed she was in it, mistaking the dog in the bed for her”, but although two fire engines attended, she chose not to press charges.

It goes on to say that Mills would interfere with her electric supply in order to gain access to her flat and, she believes, to frighten her, and that Mills would call and tell her to “watch her electrics”.

His mother also described him as “carrying knives at all times” and the report highlights that on one occasion he held one to her throat.

The report describes how Kim would try and keep Mills away from Kayleigh, but when it became apparent that she was besotted by him, she tried to involve him in normal family life.

It states: “When this failed due to [Mills’] abusive behaviour she tried her best to manage this threatening and difficult man and sought help from many agencies sharing her concerns.”

The report says there were concerns by social services and the police that Kayleigh was having a sexual relationship with Mills before she was 16 years old, but that these concerns were investigated but were not substantiated.

It adds: “Concerns about possible sexual exploitation were not followed up.”

A discussion was held in November 2010 between police and social services where it was agreed social services would undertake enquiries in line with the All Wales Child Protection Procedures.

The report states: “It appears that the children protection enquiry was opened and closed on the same day in December 2010, with recommendations that [Kayleigh] received some “further work”.

“The nature or timing of “further work” cannot be identified and does not appear to have been delivered by services.”

According to police and social services records, the police informed Kim and Kayleigh about Mills posing a significant risk and discussed the concept of grooming.

Kim contacted the police and social services four times in five weeks expressing concerns after Kayleigh received threatening texts and Mills also sent death threats to Kim’s son. In 2011, Mills returned to Bolton, and in April his mother rang the police following another domestic assault by him on her, but social services in Torfaen were not made aware of this.

In August 2011, Gwent Police received a report that Mills physically assaulted Kayleigh in a park, but she denied it.

Kayleigh bought a tent and she and Mills slept together in this near the house and then in the garden and in October 2011, she found out she was pregnant.

She gave birth to twins, one baby was still born, but Kimberley was cared for in the hospital neonatal unit.

The report highlights “within five days of the birth, nursing staff identified [Mills] as a problem”.

In May 2012, social service records describe Mills as “abusive” to Kim and Kayleigh and “the nature of the threats was extreme”.

By July 2012, Mills was homeless and not cooperating with the substance misuse project to address alcohol abuse. The report states “social services were unaware of his lack of engagement with that service”.

Within the report it says that a friend of Kim says she described Mills as “controlling and paranoid to social service employees”.

The report adds that a “safety plan was developed by the social service team for baby [Kimberley], however such a plan was not considered for Kim and Kayleigh.”

According to family and friends, concerns culminated on August 13, 2012, when Kayleigh’s brother believed Mills was “trying to procure [Kayleigh] to a Polish lorry driver to gain money for alcohol.” He called the police.

The report continues that on August 15, 2012, Kim reported to social services that Mills “told his mother that baby [Kimberley] was dead, while [Kayleigh] had told her mother that [Mills] has been physically abusive to her.”

But this did not result in an assessment of domestic abuse risk.

When baby Kimberley was home, she was to have oxygen at the house. The report adds that on August 28, “the night before [Kimberley] was supposed to be discharged; [Mills] used the oxygen at the house as a threat”.

On August 29, Kim attended Cwmbran Police Station to report that Mills had cut all of the electrical leads to her home, snapped the key to the electric meter and taken her door keys. The officer obtained a statement, submitted a crime complaint and requested new locks to be fitted the same day by the housing association. But the report adds that the case was “not prioritised” and Mills was “never spoken to or arrested over these alleged offences”.

The report highlights that on September 17, Kimberley was allowed home with her mum and grandmother, and Mills sat in a tent outside the family home.

Forensic reports indicate that “he set fire to the tent. [Mills] then set fire to [Kim’s] family home in which his baby daughter, her mother and grandmother were asleep.”

A number of UK recommendations are made within the report following the incident.

These are that the home office reviews the existing system of flagging of perpetrators who use fire as a weapon, that the future revisions of the Domestic Abuse, Stalker and Honour Based Violence Risk checklist (DASH) are revised to include the threat of arson or history of fire setting and that a system is rolled out nationally to ensure information between forces is shared.

A Wales-wide recommendation is that the Welsh Government’s Christmas domestic abuse TV campaign that focussed on third party reporting by a family member is re-run.

The report highlights that “the family sought help on many occasions and were cooperative with agencies” and that the report “identified the need for cultural change across all agencies in their repose to domestic abuse.”

It continues “in order to create a positive culture for the identification and management of domestic abuse victims, their families and perpetrators, we need to have a confident and competent workforce who put into practice the training they have received.”

It further recommends cultural change through education, that “young people’s resilience is developed through education” and that Gwent “undertakes a pilot of this approach in schools, colleges and pupil referral units”.

It adds that any gaps in domestic abuse policy need to be addressed to “ensure frontline police officers and staff has clarity, middle manager have a process to scrutinise and the leadership a clear and publically well defined position”.

Highlighted within the report is that domestic abused awareness courses are “undersubscribed” but that social services department are now undertaking such training and Gwent Police are incorporating details from this case into their training to ensure domestic abuse is identified.

It states: “the failure of service to engage the alleged perpetrator of domestic abuse in this case suggests that this is a skill that needs to be embedded in existing training.”

A further recommendation calls for early intervention. It states: “[Kim] expressed her concerns about her daughter frequently to agencies. We consider that these were perceived as low risk because at no point was a risk assessment generated.”

It recommends that the Gwent Missing Children Hub model is expanded to address domestic abuse and child sexual exploitation cases.

It also calls for a Sexual Exploitation Risk Assessment Framework assessment to be undertaken on all women under the age of 8 years who are pregnant.