Five years of pain and still no answers - Regan Tierney’s family remember the ‘beautiful’ young mum they lost

In the early hours of July 5, 2019 Shannon Tierney received a phone call that would shatter the lives of her and her family forever. Her ‘beautiful’ and ‘selfless’ older sister Regan had been ‘killed’ at the hands of her partner in their former Salford home.

It was the start of an ‘awful dream’. Five years on it has turned into a nightmare that Regan’s family have been unable to wake up from as they still wait for answers.

After years of delays an inquest into the tragic death of the 27-year-old mum is finally being heard next month. Her family hope it will bring to light that Regan failed to be protected by the very people who were meant to keep her safe.

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A 2022 Domestic Homicide Review commissioned by Salford Community Safety Partnership found that just days before her death, Regan made a phone call to police reporting that her partner Daniel Patten, 31, had threatened to 'put her head on a stick,' believing she was in danger.

But due to a three-day delay to record the report by GMP, by the time the force made contact with her, Regan had 'lost confidence' and decided not to take the matter further.

An inquest into Daniel Patten’s death in 2022 heard the 31-year-old stabbed Regan to death at the home they once shared in Walkden before killing himself after being left "destroyed" by their break-up.

Police said they were treating the tragedy as a murder-suicide following the pair's ten-year relationship, during which Regan was subject to coercive and controlling behaviour, intimidation, verbal abuse, physical violence and threats, at the hands of Patten.

The Domestic Homicide Review following Regan’s death found that a number of