VIOLENT ATTACKER WHO BEAT WOMEN
A VIOLENT man who attacked a series of women was able to move between Wales and Scotland without the authorities appearing to be fully aware of his history.
David Kerr, 37, abused and viciously assaulted three women, including breaking into the home of his ex-partner Amy Clarke in Cardiff and strangling her until she passed out.
Campaigners claim men like Kerr are on a “time line to murder” and they should be on a register, to restrict and monitor them like terrorists and sex offenders.
By moving between Scotland and Wales and changing his name, Kerr took advantage of a serious failure to track the criminal histories of serial domestic abusers.
The Daily Record reported that last week a sheriff sentencing Kerr was only informed of his Welsh assault convictions after one of his victims emailed them to a Scottish prosecutor on the case.
A disjointed approach between justice agencies has led to a failure to identify Kerr as a serial abuser, despite a 10-year pattern of potentially fatal attacks.
Women’s Aid Scotland confirmed they have dealt with similar cases where serial attackers have not been red-flagged.
Kerr, who is originally from Paisley, has consistently been handed a series of paltry punishments including community service, alcohol and anger management classes and fines.
Experts say serial domestic attackers should be forced, like sex offenders, to notify police of any change in name or address, if they travel abroad or start a new relationship.
In May and June of 2013 for the attack on Amy, which included breaking into her home and strangulation, a Cardiff court gave Kerr a suspended sentence, 180 hours of unpaid work, £300 of fines and a 10-day alcohol management course.
Amy previously told Scotland’s Daily Record: “He strangled me until I was unconscious. I came round because he punched me so hard in the face that it woke me up. I thought I was going to die.”
Strangulation is the second most common cause of death next to stabbing for women murdered by domestic violence.
Paula was attacked by Kerr in Mull on a Valentine’s weekend in 2018, when he repeatedly hit her head against the car steering wheel before beating her up in a hotel room, culminating in him smashing up the room.
Despite bruising and hotel staff corroborating what happened police accepted her denial Kerr had hit her – a common reaction from traumatised abused women.
Police Scotland had to formally apologise to Paula after she later officially complained Mull officers had asked her to pick him up from the cells following the attack.
Kerr’s near fatal attacks on Amy should have alerted police he was a high risk but he was released after a few hours, with no restrictions, and assaulted Paula twice again in the following month.
In April 2018 he was charged with assault to injury and threatening behaviour at Paula’s home in Paisley after he locked her in, head butted her, grabbed her throat and punched her.
As part of a plea deal, the Mull charges were dropped and Kerr was sentenced to 275 hours’ community service.
He was ordered onto a programme to rehabilitate domestic abusers but he had already beaten another woman Amanda Hopkins in Wales before the course.
At the Paisley sentencing, Kerr’s defence used former partner Amy as an unwitting character witness, falsely claiming she maintained a “civilised interface” with him.
This was accepted without question by the court when in fact Amy had a restraining order against Kerr.
Within a month of the Paisley sentence for Paula, in May 2019, Kerr adopted his middle name of Blakely and moved back to Wales, where he had soon met Amanda and attacked again.
Soon after he moved, Kerr claimed on social media he had been the victim of a “witch hunt”, referring to Paula and Amy, as attention-seeking “witches”, “snakes” and “scumbags”.
He claimed he had “never hurt anyone in my life” apart from occasionally “lashing out and losing control” and there “is worse violence” tried in courts.
In one gushing post he called new partner Amanda his “saviour” who “helped me regain my trust in women”. This was three months before viciously beating her in a street.
He was given a 16-week spell in prison for the attack but was released halfway and was only returned to serve the rest after he breached bail.
On his final release he was arrested for allegedly beating Amanda again but the charges were dropped after she was too scared to testify.
Last night, Marsha Scott of Scottish Women’s Aid said women and children were “paying the price” for a failure to tackle serial abusers.
She said: “The David Kerr case demonstrates the kind of systemic failure that we hear about all the time from survivors in our services. This is not the first time
that we have heard about the lack of information sharing across jurisdictions. Surely this problem must have a straightforward solution, one that will enable police in all four nations to respond appropriately and sheriffs and judges to administer justice.
“The gap between the horrific abuse that children and women experience and the community service and short custodial sentences that perpetrators receive continues to horrify us.”
The Daily Record exposed Kerr in 2019 but his tactical name switch prevented any internet search outing him to prospective new partners here in Wales.
Last night Paula said the justice system had failed Kerr’s victims and threatened the lives of women.
She said: “The courts kept giving David chance after chance. If he had been jailed after the attack on me, he couldn’t have gone on to attack Amanda and put her in a hospital. I feel sick about that.
“He will never stop and he will only get worse. Abusers like him must be jailed and then placed on a register and properly monitored or more women will die.”
In November last year after breaching an order preventing him contacting Paula and failing to do his community service, he was fined £350 at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court.
In another case last month at Paisley Sheriff Court he pleaded guilty to two charges relating to Paula in 2018, including breaching conditions by turning up to her friend’s birthday party and subjecting her to threatening and abusive behaviour.
After Kerr pleaded guilty at court, Paula discovered in a chance conversation with the Fiscal, that Kerr’s assault convictions relating to Amy were missing from the court’s records.
Kerr had left his own copy in Paula’s home which she emailed to the Fiscal [Scotland’s public prosecutor] to pass to the sheriff, who sentenced Kerr with two fines of £150.
Paula said: “It was terrifying, realising there is no proper record of the history of a violent criminal like David. It shouldn’t take a victim to fill in the gaps. I now wonder if courts have been so lenient because they haven’t had his full criminal history.”
In the past year more than 180 women have been killed by men in the UK, 60% of them by former or current partners.
MPs in Westminster are currently exploring an amendment to Domestic Abuse legislation to include a register of serial abusers but it would only cover England and Wales.