Queen gives campaigning duo Pride of Britain award

A campaigning duo who have raised awareness of domestic violence after their daughter and friend was killed were given a Pride of Britain award by the Queen.

Diana Parkes and Hetti Barkworth-Nanton were the mother and best friend respectively of Joanna Simpson, 46, who was killed by Robert Brown in Ascot, Berkshire, in October 2010.

Both Ms Parkes and Ms Barkworth-Nanton said they have supported each other since.

The duo were appointed CBE in the New Year Honours List in December.

Ms Barkworth-Nanton was aware that they would be given the Pride of Britain award at Clarence House.

But Ms Parkes attended believing that she was there to film part of a documentary about their work.

Brown, formerly of Winkfield, Berkshire, killed Ms Simpson at her home within earshot of their two children, then aged nine and 10.

He buried her body in a pre-dug grave in Windsor Great Park before confessing to the police the following day.

The former pilot, then aged 47, was found not guilty of murder after a jury was told the couple's bitter divorce proceedings had put him under stress.

He was due to be freed in November 2023 after serving half of his 26-year jail sentence for manslaughter, but his release was blocked by the government.

Ms Parkes set up the Joanna Simpson Foundation, which seeks to support children who experience domestic abuse and homicide.

“We’re a team, Hettie and I. We have been wonderful to each other, really. Hettie’s just been a total star.

“I just hope that [recognition] means people are aware that in a domestic abuse situation, it isn’t just the perpetrator and the victim. So often the children are ignored and left in a terrible state," Ms Parkes told BBC Breakfast.

“Of both parents, one might be locked up, the other dead. It’s the most awful situation for these children – put in care, fostered, taken away from all of the things that they know. It’s just so awful and we just wanted to make people aware that these children need support, love, hope and protection.”

Ms Barkworth-Nanton, who chairs the domestic violence charity Refuge, said: “I think when you go through something like this...where Robert Brown was found guilty of manslaughter not murder, and the deep injustice that comes from that, I think that’s when we started fighting together.

“It’s that fight in both of us that’s kept us going. Sometimes I lose a bit of energy and fight and sometimes [Ms Parkes] loses a bit of energy and fight and we just pick each other up. It’s amazing actually.”

The Pride of Britain Awards will be broadcast on ITV1 on Thursday from 20:00 BST.

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