GPS tags will keep domestic abusers away from victims

DOMESTIC abusers are to be tracked with GPS tags for the first time in the UK under plans to create electronic “exclusion zones’’ to prevent them approaching their former partners.

Up to 200 convicted domestic abusers will be tagged in the pilot scheme that could be extended nationwide to protect vulnerable victims from further attacks or contact.

It will help police and probation officers enforce licence conditions on abusers with those who breach them facing prosecution and potential prison sentences. The “exclusion zones” will cover victims’ homes and areas where there is a risk of contact with the victim.

The tags will help police arrest any suspected abuser if they breach restraining orders as well as providing location data that can be used to verify a victim’s account of any reoffending.

It is being launched by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, who believes it will be a significant deterrent to abusers and is investing £230,000 in the scheme, which will run for a year.

It will cover offenders who have served a prison sentence for a domestic abuse-related offence, such as stalking, harassment, physical abuse, sexual abuse and coercive control. It comes as the Government publishes its new sentencing and policing bill which aims to expand the use of GPS tags.

It coincides with a six per cent rise in domestic abuse from last March, when lockdown began, to December, compared with the same period in 2019. More than 94,500 domestic abuse offences were recorded in 2020.