Father whose daughter was strangled to death during sex breaks down in tears as he recalls their last ever conversation on Laura Whitmore Investigates
- The presenter spoke with family of the late Chloe Miazek, from Aberdeenshire
- READ MORE: Woman, 43, dies two years after being doused in petrol and set alight by her boyfriend in ‘one of the worst cases of domestic violence police had ever seen’
A father whose daughter was strangled to death during sex six years ago broke down in tears as he recalled their last conversation.
In her new ITVX programme Laura Whitmore Investigates, the former Love Island presenter, 38, shares an emotional moment with grieving father Bob Miazek.
In November 2017, Bob’s daughter Chloe – who was just 20 years old at the time – was murdered by Mark Bruce.
He had approached her at a bus stop in Aberdeen as they made their way home from two separate nights out.
Two hours later, the 32-year-old choked Chloe to death while they had sex at his flat in the city’s Rosemount Viaduct.
During his High Court case, the 32-year-old tried to plead that they both had a ‘shared interest’ in ‘erotic asphyxiation’.
After killing Chloe, Bruce was seen on CCTV leaving his flat and wandering the streets for over an hour before walking to Rosemount Police Station.
There he buzzed an intercom and said: ‘I’ve done something terrible.’
In March 2018, Bruce was convicted of culpable homicide and sentenced to six years.
Five years on, Bob and his son Nathan sat down with Laura to reflect on what Chloe was like as a person and the lasting impact of her tragic case.
During the emotional meeting, Bob showed Laura childhood photos of his late daughter.
‘That’s one of my favourite photos,’ Bob said as he shared one snap of Chloe and Nathan beaming at the camera as they sat together in a restaurant booth.
The father said: ‘We were out at an Italian restaurant, they’d been decorating my flat for me. They’d painted each other and the carpet far more than they did anything else. As you can see everybody had a good time.’
A father who lost his daughter after she was strangled to death after sex – six years ago – broke down in tears as he expressed his pride for her
The High Court in Aberdeen was told that the pair had a ‘shared interest’ in ‘erotic asphyxiation’ and that Chloe Miazek (pictured) had died in ‘seconds’ after he had seized her neck during sex
Pictured: Mark Bruce, 32, from Aberdeen, was jailed for six years after he strangled Chloe Miazek to death during sex in November 2017
Tearing up, the visibly emotional father then said: ‘I’m just so proud of both my kids.’
Bob told Laura that the last conversation he’d had with his daughter was about her borrowing some money to buy dress she’d wanted for her 21st birthday.
Chloe was set to celebrate the milestone birthday just eight days after she was murdered.
The father recalled: ‘And I was like sure, as long you don’t go and spend it at the pub.
‘So, she said she wasn’t going to go out. So when they phoned me on the Friday morning, I thought it can’t be Chloe.
‘They just said “you need to come out here now”. And I knew within… I’d worked it out within minutes, what had happened. Worst time I’ve ever had in my life. Horrific… My world collapsed.’
‘I can see how hard you’ve fought for the last few years,’ Laura remarked. ‘And what you’ve done with her legacy.’
While speaking with Laura, Bob had opened up about the difficulties of navigating the legal system during Chloe’s case, and feeling sidelined in the process.
In her new ITVX programme, Laura Whitmore Investigates – which sees the former Love Island host explore taboo topics – the presenter shares an emotional moment with the grieving parent
He explained: ‘So what happens with Scottish law is the Crown Prosecution Service picks and chooses which information they decide to show the judge.
‘And when it goes to pleading, it’s an agreed statement between the defense and the CPS that has to go to the judge. But all they said to us was “it’s all fine, we’ll handle it”.
‘But when they actually came through and was said in court, we disagreed with almost all of it that was said in that statement.’
Both Bob and Nathan felt it was a push to ‘implicate Chloe in her own murder’.
Since then, Bob has worked with the organisation We Can’t Consent to This to prevent others from using a similar ‘sex game gone wrong’ defence.
Bruce denied murder and plead guilty to culpable homicide, which is Scotland’s equivalent to a manslaughter charge.
‘That’s one of my favourite photos,’ Bob said as he shared one snap of Chloe and Nathan sat together in a booth
During Bruce’s sentencing, his defence team said: ‘There was no conversation between himself and Ms Miazek about violence during sex, there was no discussion and that at no point would she have expected such.’
Bob revealed that he’s since done ‘a lot of counselling’ after long periods of struggle – he ‘couldn’t even leave the house for seven months’ at one point.
‘You have to be ale to confront it… you have to be able to talk about it,’ he explained.
‘Because he only got six years I made a promise that I’d do anything I could to represent my daughter.’
Reflecting on the case, Bob added: ‘After being through this experience, I don’t believe law represents the common people. It definitely didn’t represent my daughter in any way. We’d got no support, nothing.’
In 2020, Bob told BBC Disclosure that he rejected the claim that Chloe and her killer had a ‘shared interest’ in choking during sex.
He also said Bruce didn’t go to the police ‘anywhere near’ quickly enough. The killer wandered the streets for an hour before heading to the police station.
‘He should have reported it when it happened,’ said. ‘He should’ve done something, not just leave her.’
In 2020, Bob told BBC Disclosure that rejected the claim that Chloe and her killer had a ‘shared interest’ in choking during sex
Advocate depute Jo McDonald said an officer asked him to clarify what Bruce meant when he said he had ‘done something terrible’.
He replied: ‘I’ve killed someone. There’s a female in my bed.’
The first episode of Laura Whitmore’s new show, which is available to stream on ITVX from today, centres around rough sex.
Laura also speaks to experts about the growing practices of BDSM in sex culture, and questions whether it’s being used to justify violence against women in intimate spaces.
Other episodes will also tackle the rise of incels and cyber stalking.
‘I tried to go in with no judgement but of course you have a judgement,’ Laura said of making the programme – and particularly of speaking with men who sympathise with the incel movement.
‘I don’t agree with most of the things that some of the guys were saying to me, but it’s important to give them space to speak and then afterwards I can challenge them.
‘So, I had time, so some of the interviews went on for two hours, even though we don’t use the whole interview, but just to get to the place where we want to, you can’t just jump in with some of these topics. So it’s important to give all our contributors the space that they need to get to the issues they want to talk about.’
Laura Whitmore Investigates is available to stream exclusively on ITVX from Thursday 27 July
Source: Read Full Article
