‘This register will save
CAMPAIGNER’S RELIEF AS HOUSE OF LORDS BACKS KEY ADDITION TO
DOMESTIC abuse survivor Zoe Dronfield has said she is “ecstatic” after a motion was passed in the House of Lords which will see a stalkers and domestic abusers register added to the Domestic Abuse bill following years of campaigning.
Zoe, from Coventry, was left with stab wounds, bleeding to the brain, a broken nose and wrist after being attacked with a meat cleaver by ex boyfriend Jason Smith in 2014.
Since then, Zoe has been working and campaigning for a serial perpetrator register of domestic abusers and stalkers added to the existing Domestic Abuse bill.
After six years of tireless effort and almost 300,000 signatures, the amendment failed to get through the House of Commons. However, last Monday it was then passed by the House of Lords by 327 votes to 232, overriding the government, meaning it will now have to be added to the bill.
“It’s brilliant news it’s now in the bill, I’m absolutely ecstatic – this will save lives,” Zoe told the Telegraph. “I was almost murdered by an ex-partner. He was actually known to police.
“And so I was really annoyed by this at the time because actually, had they picked this up when I was calling the police, they would have dealt with him differently.
“But it wasn’t picked up because currently there’s no statutory obligation on the police to actually collect that data and and act on it.
“It really is a massive step because it will put the onus on perpetrators to change.
“When I went through my ordeal I was calling the police and they were just saying ‘he hasn’t really done anything,’ even though he was outside my house banging on the doors, calling me hundreds of times a day.
“He was messaging me on Facebook and Whatsapp – I just couldn’t conduct my life in a normal way. It was terrifying at times. However, if he had been on a register, they would have been around here knowing that he was high-risk perpetrator. So I would have been dealt with differently
“They actually classed me as a standard risk, because they hadn’t picked up on the fact that he was a serial perpetrator.
“So now the register will mean that there’s a statutory obligation on the police to do something, and collect that data, and there will also be more onus on the perpetrator so it will also mean that the police can focus their energy more on the higher risk victims and the higher risk perpetrators.”
The violence women and girls face at the hands of men has been pushed to centre stage in the UK following the horrific death of Sarah Everard earlier this month.
Zoe thinks events surrounding news of the 33-year-old’s death and the subsequent vigil at Clapham
If he had been on a register, the police would have been around here knowing that he was a highrisk perpetrator. Zoe Dronfield