Mum killed by partner as she waited for police to say if he was violent
Family’s plea for faster results on abuse checks
‘Brutal and barbaric attack’
A WOMAN was bludgeoned to death by her new boyfriend as she waited for police to tell her if he had a history of violence.
Rosie Darbyshire, 27, was murdered by 25yearold Ben Topping before she could be told he had a criminal record and was on bail for breaking a man’s jaw.
She had made an application under a scheme known as Clare’s Law, designed to warn people if a partner has a history of violence or abuse, but was murdered 11 days later, as she awaited a response.
Now her devastated family are calling for the rules to be changed to require police forces to disclose information more quickly.
Miss Darbyshire, of Preston, had only been with Topping for a month, having reconnected with him on social media after they met at college years earlier.
Her family became concerned after hearing rumours about his past and urged the mumofone to find out more about him.
‘When she started putting pictures of them together on Facebook, people were commenting, saying he’s a bit weird. An exgirlfriend wrote something like: “You’ll be next”,’ said her sister, Alice Hodgson.
She said Miss Darbyshire, who had a nineyearold son, eventually agreed to make an application under Clare’s Law.
She went to Lancashire Police on January 28, but Topping beat her to death in the street with a crowbar following a drinkfuelled argument on February 7.
She was left unrecognisable after sustaining more than 50 injuries in the attack.
Her family say Topping – who had a history of alcohol and substance abuse as well as previous convictions – was aware the application had been made. He had told her he was on bail for actual bodily harm for breaking a man’s jaw at a club in a row over a former partner nine months before.
Topping was jailed for life in May after he admitted murdering Miss Darbyshire and was ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years in jail. The judge described the attack as ‘brutal and barbaric’.
Now her family have started a petition calling on the Government to reduce the 35 day period which police have to respond to requests under Clare’s Law – officially known as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.
Her other sister Eleanor said: ‘Clare’s Law is an incredible thing, but it needs tightening up. You see people getting stopped and searched, and the police have all the information there and then. Why can’t Clare’s Law be like that?
‘He broke someone’s jaw, he was on bail for ABH, surely it’s just a phone call? We’re not delusional, Rosie might not have left [Topping] if she’d had the response, but she didn’t get to make that choice.’
The campaign is calling for greater awareness of the scheme and for applicants to get a call back within 48 hours. They also want domestic violence calls to the police nonemergency number, 101, to be fasttracked to call handlers with access to a database of violent offenders.
The Home Office said that police had 35 days to process applications, but ‘initial checks’ had to be carried out within 24 hours and that officers must act if there is an ‘immediate risk’.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct referred the case back to Lancashire Police for internal review. The force said: ‘An application had been made under Clare’s Law and was being considered at the time of Rosie’s tragic murder.’