Murdered Carlisle mum 'should have been in a safe house' - claim

The 33-year-old mum-of-two was killed in a frenzied attack by her former partner Miklos Verebes just 36 hours after police arrested him on suspicion of raping her - and then released him.

He was jailed for life after a jury convicted him raping and murdering Melinda, a devoted mother to their two children.

Now her former friends and neighbours, sisters Beccy and Danielle Wilkinson, and their mother Allison Stubbs, have spoken of their friendship with her, and spelled out why they feel she was failed.

They say police and other agencies should have spotted the clear danger signals that ultimately left Melinda vulnerable to a man whose violent past remained hidden until it was too late.

In the weeks before she died, Melinda told colleagues she was terrified Verebes would go after her once released from prison for assaulting her.

A Carlisle-based domestic violence expert had assessed him as posing a “very high risk” a month before she was killed, and before police arrested him on suspicion of raping her.

She had told the same expert of the prolonged abuse she suffered from 29-year-old Verebes, including how he raped her, strangled and slapped her; and how he at times had locked her in a bedroom and told her it was his right to have sex whenever he wanted.

Police interviewed Melinda at length about the allegations on September 9 last year.

Verebes was arrested and interviewed four days later – but he denied wrongdoing and was released and told he would not be charged.

Less than two days later, infuriated that she had spoken to the police about the rapes, Verebes exacted a horrifying revenge, using a sharp rock to fatally attack Melinda.

“She should have been moved to another house,” said Beccy, 32. “He'd been assessed as being a very high risk of harming her but she wasn't listened to.

"They must have known he was going to go after her.”

In an exclusive interview with the News & Star , the sisters and their mother recalled how Melinda – a gifted linguist who moved to the UK from her native Hungary with Verebes – lived in fear of him.

They split on July 20 last year after he attacked her.

It was while he was serving a jail term for that assault that Melinda found the courage to speak first to a domestic violence advisor, and then to police, about the years of sexual abuse.

During the rape and murder trial, the jury heard how he controlled every aspect of her life – her money, her body, and even her food.

It was to the sisters' house next door in Orton Road that she fled after he attacked her with a piece of wood in July.

They fed and comforted Melinda, who confided in them, telling the women how Verebes was jealous and controlling, and left her starving as he squandered her earnings on drugs and gambling.

“She'd be alive now if she'd been moved,” said Danielle. “I remember asking Melinda whether they had offered to put her in a safe house. She told me they were just keeping her where she was.

“I knew he was dangerous the first time I met him. I went on my gut instinct. They had a lot of opportunities to help her. They could have sorted it.

“With him being assessed as a very high risk, and with the allegations she'd just made against him, they should have known he'd be angry. He told us he'd been in the Mafia.

“He said he'd witnessed his brother being killed.”

After his conviction, it emerged that as a youth Verebes had twice threatened people with knives, and preyed on young women.

In one chilling incident when he was 17, he had armed himself with a blade and forced a young woman to go with him to a remote park.

He then told her he would rape and kill her.

The woman escaped thanks to the intervention of a passer-by.

Yet when Cumbria Police and Social Services did background checks in Hungary after the July assault, they were told Verebes had no criminal record. This was because the knife incidents were classed as a judge's “findings”, not convictions.

In the weeks before he was released from prison on September 13 last year, Melinda told both her neighbours and her colleagues at Domino's Pizzas in Carlisle she feared Verebes would target her.

“She was petrified,” said Allison. “She always said that he would kill her. She said that if he couldn't have her and the kids, he'd kill her. That's what he did.

"Melinda should have been in a safe house.

“He should have been charged with the rapes and recalled to prison straight away. Melinda should have been believed.

“It's a disgrace that they didn't look more into his background in Hungary. If they had, he wouldn't have been let out. I had proper conversations with Melinda about how he had raped her. I told her to go to the Let Go [the Impact Housing Domestic Violence Service].

“I told her they'd help her.”

Both Allison and her daughters spoke of how Melinda – a university graduate who hoped one day to work in the UK as an English tutor – was devoted to her two children, a boy and a girl.

"She was a warm, friendly, bubbly and highly intelligent young woman: a beautiful person, inside and out," said Allison.

“But she was vulnerable. He was controlling every aspect of her life. He'd even time how long it took her to come back from work. She was petrified of him coming out of prison. Why did she have to die before they brought the rape charges to court?

“She was failed.

“She had so much to live for.”

The terrible events of September 15 when Melinda was murdered has left her daughters traumatised, said Allison.

“But I'm so proud of my girls, and how they tried to help. Beccy keeps asking me whether I think Melinda heard them that day; whether she knew they were trying to help her.

"I've said she would have known.

“They were shouting and screaming to Melinda, asking her if she was okay and trying to kick through the door. They did everything they could.”

As for Melinda's killer, he has been told he must serve at least 28 years before he can even be considered for release on licence.

“He should never be let out,” added Allison.

“Life should mean life. He's cheated Melinda out of watching her children grow up; and he's cheated those two children out of having a mother who was devoted to them. She was a beautiful person.”

A Cumbria Police spokesman said: “There have been some questions raised during the trial around the Constabulary’s contact with Melinda prior to her death.

“These questions have been asked internally and a referral was made to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) following Melinda’s death. The Constabulary is fully cooperating with the IPCC in respect of their ongoing investigation.

“I am unable to comment further about this.”

In an earlier statement, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that the first they knew of the rape allegations was after Miss Korosi was murdered on September 15.