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Protection order process failed Angila Wilson

Angila Wilson was found deceased in her home on Easter weekend. Her common-law husband has been charged with first degree murder.
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KAMLOOPS – A Clearwater woman asked the province's courts for protection from her former partner just a week before she was killed.

Sources tell Infotel News that Angila Wilson, 32, applied for a protection order indicating she feared for her safety in days and weeks before she was found dead in her Clearwater home Easter Monday. Her former partner, Iain Scott, was arrested after he took their three children hostage in a stand-off with RCMP that lasted several hours.

Scott, 41, is charged with her first degree murder.

A protection order is a family court process to protect family members at risk for violence. It doesn't appear her application made it to court. While it's unclear if Scott was aware she applied for the order, her friend Danielle Easson says she was prevented from travelling to Kamloops to seek court protection. They discovered someone poured sugar in the gas tank of her car. 

Easson and others suspected Scott.

Easson knew Wilson was seeking protection but wasn't aware she actually filed the paperwork. 

“It was the last couple of weeks that were starting to get weird. She was starting to get nervous about him being around her," Easson said. "The only time I saw her in tears was when he had put that stuff in her gas tank. Obviously that’s why he did it – he didn’t want her to go to Kamloops.”

While Clearwater has a courthouse, it's only open one day every two months.

Family court records are not public, so it remains a mystery how she applied for the protection order. Depending on circumstances, an order can be expedited by a judge. In some cases, the subject of the protection order must be informed but not always. 

But since Wilson's death, police in Clearwater say her death may have inspired more victims of domestic violence to seek help.

Sgt. Kevin Podbisky of Clearwater RCMP says the use of safe spaces in the community have “spiked up a bit.”

Jack Keough, Executive Director for Clearwater’s Yellowhead Community Services, refused to answer questions about services available in Clearwater. He refused to say if women can find help there or where they must go to get it. He also refused to offer general advice to other women and families in Clearwater under similar circumstances

He said it would be "inappropriate to comment at this time."

According to a VictimLink B.C. hotline, like many small rural communities, Clearwater has no specific services for domestic violence, including a safehouse. To escape family violence, women in smaller towns are directed to larger city centres. Any woman looking for information for services relating to domestic violence can call VictimLink BC at 1-800-563-0808.

Since Wilson's murder and other cases of suspected or proven domestic violence, several agencies in the province have called on the province to make changes in domestic violence legislation. In Kamloops, lawyer and professor Micah Rankin is calling on the province to establish proper domestic violence courts. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, British Columbia’s representative for children and youth, repeated calls for tougher legislation and women's support groups urge women in domestic violence situations to get help.

To contact a reporter for this story, email gbrothen@infotelnews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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