Tina Billingham's sister: I tried to save her from killer partner
The sister of a woman who was killed by her violent partner after suffering for years at his hands has told how she desperately tried to rescue her from the relationship days before she died.
Tina Billingham's life was made a living hell by Ronald Cooke during their 17-year relationship when he regularly abused her and effectively made her a prisoner in her own home.
The violent bully killed her when he stabbed her with a sword stick as they drove through Rowley Regis.
It was the latest in a long line of attacks which kept her under his control but this time there would be no coming back.
She was finally free.
Her sister Mandy had watched helplessly as Tina continued to stay by his side insisting everything was fine, even if her bruises suggested otherwise.
The 54-year-old mother-of-two was kept isolated by Cooke, who cut her off from her family.
Mandy said her sister was "very private".
"She never wanted me to address any of the issues," she said.
Surprised
Alarm bells were sent ringing early on when the family learned from the newspaper that Cooke had been sent to prison.
"We were quite surprised when he came out of prison they continued with their relationship," Mandy said.
If it was hoped Cooke was a bit of a rogue who would mature and change his ways, it became clear this would not be the case.
On the rare occasions she could see her sister, Mandy would urge her to leave, particularly towards the end when the violence had begun to escalate to frightening levels.
Mandy, 59, who remembers her "happy-go-lucky" and "hyperactive" sister growing up who was "always doing something", told of the heartbreaking moment she refused to leave Tina's home in Old Hill, Cradley Heath, until she came to the door.
She soon saw the reason her sister was so reluctant to let her in.
Mandy said: "I had a phone call from my nephew. He said 'something's wrong with mum' and I went round the house, she wouldn't answer the door.
"My third attempt, 'if you don't answer the door then I'm calling the police, either way I'm getting in', and that's when she was just battered from head to toe. And really that was my first sign."
At this point, Tina did get rid of Cooke but before long he was back.
Mandy said: "I got her to the GP, made sure she got food and a phone because he left her with nothing and she had kicked him out.
"But not long after that he was back. We had this thing, when he wasn't there she would ring me and I would come round every couple of weeks for a coffee, when it was convenient, when he wasn't there she'd let me know what was going on."
'Absolute fear'
Mandy said it was the fear of what Cooke, who she said 'ruled the roost, was a kingpin, and in my eyes a bully', would do, not just to her but to her loved ones, that made her stay.
"Absolute fear," she said. "Especially (for) her sons."
"She was fully aware that I could have found her a refuge anywhere in the country, it just wasn't that simple."
It was later revealed how Cooke had a fascination with knives an owned several samurai swords and ceremonial knives. Chillingly, also kept a pickaxe handle with his partner’s name on it which he “laughed about and used to intimidate her”.
There was one occasion when Mandy, so disgusted with his behaviour, decided to take on the bully. But she instantly regretted it.
"I wanted to challenge him. I did the once but I could see by Tina's face... that fear," she recalls.
"I can get off my chest what I like but I was walking out that door and back home and I don't want to be leaving her facing the consequences of me saying what I felt, challenging his behaviour. He was king of the castle."
Mandy, from Colley Gate, Halesowen, began to grow increasingly alarmed by Cooke's behaviour.
She said he was "out of control" and, just two weeks before Tina was killed, told her it was time to get out.
She said: "A couple of weeks before it happened I said to her, because there had been another incident with a knife, he's upping is ante, he's getting out of control here, it's not safe, and she just... 'oh, I'm fine'. That was a couple of weeks before it happened."
She added: "If I'd have called the police and the police had done nothing, if she'd have said there's nothing going on, it would have exacerbated that situation. It's about looking at the bigger picture."
An inquiry into Tina's death earlier this year found there were several missed opportunities by support agencies to save her.
It revealed Cooke was known by probation service to have assaulted former partners, that Ms Billingham had reported domestic abuse to GPs and confessed she thought he had the “capacity to kill” her.
The killer, who had previously tried to run down an ex-partner with his van and doused another with boiling water, was also allowed to become a joint tenant at their home in Granville Road despite warnings about his behaviour.
Mandy said she was "devastated" to learn chances had been missed to rescue Tina from Cooke's clutches.
She has joined an awareness campaign to try and get through to other victims who are in a similar situation to Tina.
She said: "It was absolutely devastating, what could have been done different with the council and probation but that made me work with the council and the review board to make those necessary changes. Don't just write people off, try and walk a bit in their shoes."
"That's spurred me on to try and make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."
