The other is Sabina Nessa, murdered by a stranger almost five years ago as she walked through a park in London.
The two had been friends at the Bedfordshire comprehensive they attended together.
Helena describes violence against women as an “epidemic”.
Ministers have described a “national emergency” and the UK government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
To get a deeper, more human understanding of the situation, we tracked news reports throughout 2025 from across the UK of women or girls who had been potentially killed by men or boys. Often, such stories had not made national headlines.
We looked at all cases where a female had been found dead and a male had been arrested – and cross-checked our own research with UK police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), and the Northern Ireland Courts Service.
Males had been charged in 90 cases, we found.
To date, among those cases, 24 have resulted in convictions for murder and six for manslaughter. Four people have pleaded guilty to manslaughter but still face murder charges.
There were 10 more incidents of women or girls killed where a male suspect also died, according to our findings – making a total of 100.
In another 15 cases, males have been arrested on suspicion of murder or manslaughter, but no charges have been brought. We know that one other investigation is ongoing.