Joanna Simpson Foundation Newsletter April 2025

Firstly, a message from our Patron and Joanna’s Mother Diana Parkes CBE:

‘We are so grateful for your continued support, and we would urge you to keep spreading the word as its not just our family but many others that suffer these horrendous consequences.  We must stop perpetrators being released from prison without careful monitoring and checks that they are mentally fit for release’.

It’s been a busy year so far for our joint Patrons Diana Parkes CBE and Hetti Barkworth Nanton CBE.

In January, Diana and Hetti had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor and Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood MP, discussing a wide range of subjects including domestic homicide and licence conditions. Read all about their meeting here.

We were thrilled to learn that on International Women’s Day in March, Hetti was named on The Independent Women’s 2025 list as one of the 50 most influential women across a range of sectors who have had an extraordinary impact on UK women’s lives.

On March 26th, Diana attended the High Sheriff of North Yorkshire awards ceremony, where the Joanna Simpson Foundation sponsored an award for the New Beginnings Peer Support Charity, a charity that works tirelessly to support domestic abuse survivors.

On April 1st, Diana and Hetti were invited to a reception at Clarence House to celebrate the 21st anniversary of SafeLives, hosted by Her Majesty Queen Camilla.

On the Island, the Joanna Simpson Foundation have been contributing to the salary of a designated Domestic Abuse worker at the Isle of Man Children’s Centre for the past 4 years.  This has proved to be a much needed service and at a recent meeting of the Trustees it was agreed to carry on supporting this for another year.

On May 15th, Diana has been invited as a Guest Speaker at the Manx Minds Conference to be held in Babbage’s, at the Mountain View Innovation Centre which is open to all.

If you haven’t seen ITV’s The British Airways Killer and Channel 5’s A Killer Makes a Call, we would highly recommend them, as both are accurate and detailed documentaries of Jo’s story.  ‘Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors‘ is another documentary following The Queen as she works to raise awareness of domestic and sexual violence.

A further production is in the pipeline…details to follow.

We also continue to lobby that killers released on licence are not properly monitored, and it is a fact regularly acknowledged that the system is broken.  This means many families and victims have a genuine and real fear of the consequences when a convicted killer is released on licence.

We are so grateful for all the donations we have received, which will go directly towards supporting those children affected by domestic abuse and homicide.

Thank you all for your support over the years.

With every best wish,

The Joanna Simpson Foundation Trustees