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A woman who was jailed for life for murdering a violent man when she was 17, spending five years in prison before a successful appeal, suffered exploitation and abuse after she was freed, her inquest has been told.
Stacey Hyde faced drug and alcohol issues after her release, and the coroner who heard her inquest concluded she died of bulimia.
Giving evidence to the inquest in Truro, Cornwall, her aunt Julie Hyde said: “She did not want to die, she just didn’t know to live.”
She said: “Stacey had spent five years in various prisons. Stacey did not cope well on her release and turned to a life of drugs, alcohol and prostitution, self-harm and bulimia. Her life was a train wreck. Stacey was the sweetest, kindest, generous and funniest person I had the pleasure to know. We miss her terribly.”
Hyde stabbed Vincent Francis, 34, in the Somerset city of Wells in 2009 after going to the help of her friend, Holly Banwell. Hyde said Francis was attacking Banwell. When the police arrived, Hyde sobbed: “He tried to kill me … I had to help Holly.”
At her trial in Bristol in 2010, the jury heard there had been 27 incidents of domestic violence between Francis and Banwell, and there was evidence that Francis had been violent towards a previous partner, but Hyde was jailed.
In 2014 the conviction was overturned after new medical evidence showed Hyde had a mental health issue when she killed Francis. She faced a retrial and a jury cleared her of murder in 2015 after it heard she had acted in self-defence. Outside Winchester crown court, Hyde said she was “blessed to have been given my life back”.
At her inquest on Thursday, the senior coroner Andrew Cox said: “My impression is of a young woman who has had an incredibly difficult period of time. She was convicted of murder, imprisoned, an appeal, which ultimately led to her release five years later, and she had not coped well once released.”
Cox said Hyde “fell in with the wrong crowd” and took drugs and alcohol to excess “to cope with what happened in her earlier life”.
The court was told Hyde moved to the remote village of Mullion, on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, having suffered domestic abuse and violence.
She developed a significant cocaine and alcohol problem and was diagnosed with bulimia. A postmortem concluded this had caused her death aged 32 in April 2024.
A risk assessment on her a month before she died recorded a history of drug and alcohol use, “sexual and financial exploitation and abuse, sexual assaults, complex mental health needs including anorexia and bulimia that in turn led to physical health complications”.
Hyde was admitted to hospital 11 times with vomiting prior to her death and had two heart attacks. On the day she died she was taken by ambulance to the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro, where she became unresponsive in a bed and, despite intervention, died 30 minutes later.
The coroner said he wanted to be clear that Hyde, who was also known as Anastasia Darlison, had been planning to travel to Greece, and that her death was not caused by alcohol or an excess of prescribed or illicit drugs.
When she died, the campaign group Justice for Women, which supported her appeal, said: “Following her release from prison, Stacey struggled to adapt to life outside and remained vulnerable to exploitation. However, she supported campaigns for justice and spoke publicly to try to raise awareness and bring hope to other women who had fought back in response to male violence. She is remembered fondly by all at Justice for Women for her vivaciousness and sense of humour.”
In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
