COUNTY Durham is the country’s capital of “femicide”, a study has shown.

The area topped the police force areas with the highest rates of women being killed over a seven-year period to last year,

The rate of femicides per 100,000 head of population was 2.5 in Durham, the highest level in England and Wales.

North Yorkshire was the lowest in the country, with just 0.7 women murdered per 100,000 population, while Cleveland was 1.4 and Northumbria was 1.3.

In Northumbria between 2009 and the beginning of 2016 there were 18 women killed, in Durham there were 15, Cleveland eight, and North Yorkshire six.

Three of the 15 Durham women who lost their lives were the victims of killer Michael Atherton, of Horden, a domestic abuser who shot his partner Susan McGoldrick, her sister Alison Turnbull and niece Tanya Turnbull, before turning the gun on himself, in 2012.

Ron Hogg, Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner for Durham and Darlington, said: “Durham Constabulary takes all murders very seriously, and tackling domestic violence is a key priority for me.

“That’s why I have co-produced a regional Violence against Women and Girls Strategy with Vera Baird and Barry Coppinger and we will be launching a revised strategy shortly.

“The Force coordinates monthly Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference, where professionals share information on high risk cases of domestic abuse and domestic violence, and put in place a management plan to minimise the risk to vulnerable individuals.

“I believe that the professional approach of the Force has contributed to a situation where there have been no murders of this kind in Durham and Darlington for four years.”

The Femicide Census was put together by Karen Ingala-Smith – a charity chief executive – and domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid, to highlight that post-separation is a high risk period for women leaving abusive relationships.

It showed that almost 1,000 women had been killed by men in England and Wales since 2009.

The census tracked and examined the deaths of women killed by men, and found that 64 per cent were murdered by their current or former partner, with eight per cent murdered by their sons.

And 74 per cent of women killed by a former spouse were attacked within the first year following their separation.

The census was started after Ms Ingala-Smith began a Counting Dead Women Twitter account to highlight the amount of women being murdered by men.

Femicide has been identified globally as a leading cause of premature death for women. The survey showed most deaths were a result of intimate partner violence, as the “final act of control”.