The father of a hairdresser who was brutally murdered by her ex-boyfriend has been in Jersey this week speaking to students about how he turned her death in “something positive”.
Hollie Gazzard was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend just three days after she ended things with him.
She was just 20 years old.
While devastated, her parents and sister were determined to “do something positive”.
Hollie’s father Nick Gazzard said: “At that time, as parents, we didn’t understand what was going on, so we didn’t pick up on the subtleties and red flags.
“Hollie was also lacking the education to understand what was happening to her.
“And that’s why we decided to set up the Hollie Gazzard Trust, a charity which aims to prevent the Hollies of the future and their families from going through what we went through.”
Over the past 11 years, the trust has worked tirelessly with organisations across the UK and further afield, training police officers, attending ministerial roundtables and working with community groups to help people to “identify, report and get out of unhealthy relationships”.
Nick explained that the key is helping people to identify that something is happening to them and knowing what to do about it.
He said: “Typical red flags that indicate a relationship is unhealthy are repeated phone calls or text messages, unusual contact or the perpetrator turning up unexpectedly.
“They may be tracking you, so that they know where you are.
“And, quite often, when the perpetrator turns up unexpectedly, the victim feels they have to leave with them, as it can be dangerous to say no.”
The Hollie Gazzard Trust this week brought its tools to Jersey.
Beaulieu head teacher Matthew Burke, who first came across the trust while he was based in Gloucester, invited Nick to speak to pupils.
Mr Burke said: “If our students can’t be independent and have the resilience to understand and recognise when something isn’t right, then we have failed from an education point of view.
“If, through partnerships with organisations such as the trust, we allow just one student to identify something that isn’t right, and to protect themselves as a result, then whatever time we have invested in this area has been worth it.”
More information about the Hollie Gazzard Trust is available online.
You can read a fuller interview with Nick in Saturday’s JEP…