This is a long-form article about coercive control. The journalist has clearly made considerable effort to understand and explain the techniques used by controlling men to terrorise their victims. She painstakingly explained how Simon Gittany slowly established complete control over Lisa Harnum, starting with the initial love-bombing, moving to isolating her from all her friends and family, then removing her ability to earn money or ask for help, and ending with complete control over her every move. Finally, because Lisa was determined to escape, he murdered her.
The article documents how Simon Gittany did this to Lisa Harnum, and uses each example of his abuse to explain how commonly these methods are used by controlling and abusive men.
This is the sort of journalism that debunks the “why didn’t she just leave?” myth and helps women understand and recognise the early signs of controlling behaviour chosen by abusive men. Which makes it all the more egregious that someone put it under a headline that does the exact opposite (as I have written before, journalists almost never write the headlines for their articles).
Lisa Harnum was not murdered by romance and there was nothing romantic about the abuse and terror Simon Gittany inflicted on her. She is dead because a violent, controlling man chose to murder her, not because some invisible, irrelevant entity threw her from a balcony.
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