Police refusal to address violence against women leads to a mother’s murder

The Met recruits vicious misogynists and covers up for the violent abusers in or out of their uniforms (Pic: Guy Smallman)

The Metropolitan police failed to stop the murder of a woman at the hands of her daughter’s abusive ex-partner, a coroner has found.

Yolanda Saldana Feliz was murdered in 2022. Her daughter, Lauris Saldana, still bears the scars from stab wounds inflicted in the attack.

A coroner has now ruled that, if the Met police had listened to Lauris’s repeated appeals for help, Yolanda’s life could have been saved.

Lauris went several times to the Met with evidence that her ex-partner, Miguel Angel Alvarez Florentino, was a violent stalker. But they ignored her.

Lauris married Florentino in her home country, the Dominican Republic and planned to live in London. Lauris asked her mother to come with her.

In London, Florentino became increasingly aggressive and unpredictable.

Their landlord helped Yolanda and Lauris to move to a room in a shared flat in Stratford, east London. They lived with other migrants and they were like “one family,” Lauris says.

Lauris worked three jobs as a kitchen porter, sometimes getting home from one job at 11pm and needing to leave three hours later at 2am.

But Florentino tracked her down. He was arrested for threatening his housemates with a knife. After his release from custody, his stalking behaviour intensified.

In August 2022, he was arrested for harassment but was released without questioning.

Over the following months, he threatened Lauris, and physically assaulted and drugged her.

Yolanda began walking her daughter to the train station. But Florentino also threatened Yolanda’s life, accusing her of stopping her daughter from taking him back.

Lauris twice went to a police station in person, only to be told she needed to contact a different officer.

How can we stop violence against women?

  Read More

She sent emails to a police officer describing how she was being chased and forced to hide from Florentino. Each email had a screenshot of obsessive, paranoid and threatening messages.

She begged the officer to help her get a restraining order. No one responded to any of the emails.

In the early hours of 23 October 2022, Florentino entered the Saldanas’ flat through a broken door. He found the women’s bedroom and attacked them.

Yolanda sustained 40 stab wounds. She was declared dead at the scene.

Lauris spent more than two months in hospital recovering from her own wounds.

During the two-week inquest into Yolanda’s death, the Met was exposed for repeatedly failing the women.

Lauris’s case was given to a trainee officer not trained on domestic violence cases. The Met failed to treat Lauris as the victim of a crime.

And they let Florentino walk free without questioning him—despite all the evidence that he was a dangerous man.

The Met has still not issued an apology. And why would it?]

The Met recruits vicious misogynists and racists and covers up for the violent abusers who wear their uniforms.