Home Office set to unveil Clare’s law

The Home Secretary Theresa May will announce next week she plans to introduce “Clare’s Law” in four areas for a year, before extending it across England and Wales.

The legislation has been named after Michael Brown’s daughter Clare Wood, a 36-year-old mother strangled and set alight by a boyfriend she met on Facebook.

Clare met George Appleton on the internet and at first thought she was the love of her life. But she was unaware that he had a string of convictions for domestic violence.

Ministers now want women like Clare, and men, to be able to go to police to check out a partner’s history.

‘Could I have done more?’

Clare’s father believes that such a law may have prevented his daughter’s death.

I accompanied him to the house where she lived and died in Salford. It was the first time he’s returned there since collecting his daughter’s charred belongings. He said he’d tortured himself about what more he could have done to protect her.

She’s been robbed of that and for no reason other than that some lad couldn’t take no for an answer – Michael Brown

He said: “Did I let my guard down, could I have done more? I’m left with that question. I’m lucky, I’m clocking 70, I don’t have to carry this burden too long.

“But I have a son who thinks the same as myself, and I have a granddaughter, a 13-year-old, who will have to go through her life, thinking this sort of thing; ‘Mum, I’ve passed my O-levels’, ‘Mum, you’ll have to buy a daft hat now I’m getting married.’ Mum, I’ve made you a grandma.'”

He added: “She’s been robbed of that and for no reason other than that some lad couldn’t take no for an answer.”

Police discretion

Domestic violence is on the increase, with 21 men and 94 women murdered by a partner, ex-partner or lover in 2010 – more than two a week.

Theresa May has been consulting the public about three options: whether to stick with the status quo; give women – or men – the right to ask police about a partner’s history; or a tougher law to give an individual or their friends and family a right to demand the information from police.

The government has opted for the middle option, which gives police some discretion about how much they disclose.

Mr Brown began his campaign six months ago, and has been contacted by countless women experiencing domestic abuse. One letter he received from a 29-year-old mum from Birmingham, Kerry Smith, was particularly upsetting.

He said: “She was suffering from domestic violence. She’d had her ribs broken, her nose broken, attacked, fearful for herself and her child. She slept with her bed propped against her bedroom door in case the lad showed up. I was quite touched by her letter and I phoned the number and I got no response, which surprised me somewhat.”

He then received a call from Birmingham police, revealing that Kerry had been stabbed to death.

Domestic violence services face funding cuts 

Stalked and murdered

Salford is one of the four areas where the new law will be trialled by the government. The local MP, former Home Office minister Hazel Blears told Channel 4 News: “I think itâ??s incredibly important, and it all really comes from the death of a young woman in my constituency who struck up a relationship with a man, who began to be violent towards her.

“She tried to end that relationship, he stalked her and eventually murdered her and as it turned out he had a long record of offences against other women for domestic violence and Clare had no idea.”

But although there’s cross-party support for the new law, there are concerns about privacy if police hand over files without proper safeguards.

The Tory MP Robert Buckland said: “I would not want to see a situation where lets say a person walks into the police station and says ‘Look, I’m thinking of going into a relationship with somebody, could you let me know their previous convictions?’

“I think that would be a perverse use of the system. I think it has to be based on a genuine concern and a genuine risk, which can then be professionally assessed before disclosure takes place.”