THE DUCHESS of Cornwall says she has been inspired to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse by the mother of a former York schoolgirl who was brutally killed.

Joanna Simpson, originally from Badger Hill and the daughter of a well-known York builder and property developer, Christopher Simpson,was battered with a claw hammer by her estranged husband David Brown in 2010, with their two children within earshot.

Brown was given a 26-year sentence for her manslaughter after being cleared of murder.

After the killing, Joanna's mother Diana Parkes decided to look after her two grandchildren and set up a foundation to help transform the lives of children impacted by domestic violence. It was at a meeting of the domestic abuse charity SafeLives that she first met the Duchess of Cornwall six years ago.

Camilla has now credited Diana with inspiring her to try to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse when the pair were reunited on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

She said she had been deeply shocked when she attended the meeting in 2016, having not known that much about domestic abuse, which she had been brought up to think of as a ‘very hush hush subject, a taboo subject.’

York Press: Joanna Simpson, who was brought up in York and was killed in 2010 by her estranged husband

She said: “To actually sit there and have somebody talking about it, with the mother of who it had happened to sitting alongside, well I will never forget that moment and I don’t think I would be as involved in it now if I hadn’t met you. You were the one who started up my passion.

“I remember saying to you at the time, ‘I don’t know what it is but I really, really want to do something to help.’ That’s how it all started.”

Diana, now 82,said it was ‘marvellous’ to have the Duchess involved in the campaign against domestic violence. “It gives it such headlines,” she said.

The Duchess said she would continue to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse and their families when she becomes Queen Consort.

“Hopefully, I shall do it forever.I shan’t let go now. I’m going to keep on if it can get a bit of attention, the right sort of attention.

“If I start something like this, I am not going to stop mid channel, I am going to go on, to try and help the likes of people like Diana who have suffered so much.

"There’s so many people out there like Diana, who have had the same awful, terrible things happen to them.” Diana said of her pledge: “That’s amazing to hear.”

Diana also spoke to presenter Emma Barnett about what it was like raising her grandchildren after her daughter’s tragic killing, in which they listened as she was struck 14 times on her head with a claw hammer.

“They could hear her being hit,” she said. “It’s the children who suffer so much.”

She also criticised TV’s soaps for showing so much violence and so many arguments, which she felt was ‘making the abnormal normal.’