Hannah Dorans was murdered by her ex-partner on the 11th of February 2017. Her parents now tell her story to raise awareness and tell her story.
POLICE SCOTLAND
Hannah’s parents, Keith and Moira Dorans, said: “No sentence will ever be long enough for us. The life of our wonderful daughter was brutally taken and our lives are forever changed.”
Hannah Doran’s story:
“Hannah dreamed of being a paramedic. From the age of 13, she volunteered for St. Andrew’s First Aid and helped at events in Midlothian. In fifth year, she got the chance to volunteer at events in Edinburgh. The first was the Royal Military Tattoo, and that’s where she met Neil.”
Neil was older than Hannah, he had more experience volunteering and had excellent medical knowledge. Hannah looked up to Neil and he gave her many opportunities to learn more lifesaving skills.
Not long after they started seeing each other, her parents took Hannah and a friend on holiday to Florida for a fortnight. While they were always Neil messaged Hannah to tell her he had a brain tumour and he could only tell her about it. This was just the start of his lies and after being told this all Hannah did was worry about him the whole holiday.
After they split up, Neil sent Hannah a video of him cutting up her favourite top which she got when she visited Universal Studios while on another holiday to Orlando.
Hannah and Neil eventually moved in together and became engaged. On two occasions money went missing from Hannah’s parents house, one of these occasions was the day before he bought the engagement ring.
Neil was on benefits and he knew how to work the system, at the time Hannah did work as a full-time care support worker at a private hospital in the Murrayfield area. When she volunteered with Edinburgh SafeZone, Hannah’s parents remember her telling them how she talked a woman down from suicide and sat with her for hours. She also told them how she realised that a woman in police custody was behaving erratically because she was a diabetic in need of insulin.
“Hannah also received medical training through her day job, and she was always looking to learn new skills. She went on a week’s intensive residential course to learn tracheotomy in Wales, and she also regularly gave blood – just another example of how caring she was. She was a compassionate person, and Neil took every opportunity to abuse this.” – quote from Hannah’s story
Hannah earned a little over £1,000 a month from her job, her parents later learnt that Neil would take £1,000 from Hannah’s bank as soon as she got paid. He completely controlled her money. He acted like he was doing it with the best interests but was taking advantage of her trust.
When Hannah left Neil, her parents said she was much happier and was moving on with her life. Neil could not let go of Hannah, so it was difficult for Hannah to cut ties. Hannah got bombarded with texts from Neil (over 2,000 in two weeks before she died).
Hannah and her dad went to the bank to change her password to stop Neil from accessing her bank account, but it was then they realised that he had her email account, so they had to completely shut her bank account down.
There was an outstanding council bill and Hannah asked to pay half. The council said the bill had to be paid in full. Hannah was willing to pay the full amount to clear the debt, Neil on the other hand, was angry and he warned Hannah against this, saying any payment had to be sent to him and contacting the council telling them not to accept money from Hannah.
After everything was sorted and Neil had no access to any of Hannah’s finances, she was ready to start a new life. She wanted to sell her car and buy a new one. The documents she needed for her car and insurance were at Neil’s flat as she could not access it online as Neil had her passwords.
The morning Hannah died, she had just finished a night shift and planned to go get the documents from Neil. She tried to get him to meet her in a nearby coffee shop, or meet her outside the flat, to hand them over but he insisted Hannah to come into the flat to get them.
Neil called 999 around 10:25am, a few hours after Hannah finishing work, he confessed that he killed Hannah. Police detained him, arrested and charged him. On the 1st of March, Neil sent Hannah’s parents a long message through social media part of which said, “Knowing that I will not be at Hannah’s funeral and be unable to lay her to rest is heartbreaking”. The day after sending the message Neil tried to transfer £500 out of Hannah’s bank but was unsuccessful.
The post-mortem showed that Hannah had been pinned down and strangled to death. Following the forensic investigations, Neil was also charged with raping Hannah. He pled guilty to culpable homicide and the defence claimed that Hannah’s death was an accident. During the trial, it was said that Police Scotland had discovered a Google search on Neil’s phone, made just hours before Hannah died, for “culpable homicide diminished responsibility sentences”. A neighbour of Neil’s also gave evidence of hearing Hannah yelling, “No, no – please stop” at the time she was murdered.
When the police arrived at the Neil’s flat, they found a defibrillator and an oxygen tank, with a mask, on the same bed where Hannah was killed. Neil, who was trained in first aid, had made no attempt to use this defibrillator to revive Hannah. When on trial Neil showed no emotion.
29th November 2018, Frazer Neil was jailed for a minimum of 19 years, He was found guilty of murder at the start of November 2018. He was also found guilty of a breach of bail by contacting her family online the following month.
Detective Inspector Stuart Alexander of Police Scotland’s Major Investigation Team said: “My thoughts are with Hannah’s family at what is a really difficult time for them.
“Keith and Moira, and their family, have shown tremendous dignity throughout the whole judicial process and the trial.
“The devastating loss of their beloved daughter, and their long wait for justice to see Neil sentenced and unable to hurt anyone else, has been agonising for them.
“Neil has been shown to be a dangerous and manipulative individual who preyed on Hannah’s trusting and caring nature, and we welcome this sentence.
“This conviction will not compensate in any way for their loss but, hopefully, it will give them a degree of comfort that justice has been done.”
Anyone who may be concerned that someone they know is at risk of harm from a current or former partner can contact Police Scotland on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
