Police given 28 days to inform women about violent partners

POLICE are to be given 28 days to tell women if their partner is a domestic abuser under a revamped Clare’s Law drawn up by Priti Patel.

The Home Secretary is to bring in new rules after complaints that some forces have been ignoring Clare’s Law, which gives women the right to ask police if a new partner has any record of violence or abuse towards women.

The new statutory guidance will set a 28-day deadline for police to disclose the information as well as laying down procedures for checking criminal databases, intelligence files and social service records and providing support to women deemed to be at risk.

The reforms follow HM inspectors’ and other reports that found “staggering variations” between police forces with some disclosing details to as few as 7 per cent of those who asked, compared with up to 96 per cent by others.

Clare’s Law was introduced in 2014 after Clare Wood was strangled to death and her body set on fire in 2009 by her ex-boyfriend, George Appleton, who had a record of violence against women.

The news came as the Crown Prosecution Service published guidance to dispel “myths” about domestic abuse and boost the number of successful prosecutions. It said the first myth – that domestic abuse was always physical – “disbelieves and invalidates” experiences of the victim and disregards “power, control, coercion and humiliation”.

Dispelling other myths, the CPS also urged police and prosecutors: not to treat domestic abuse as a “one-off ”; as only by men on women; that alcohol or drugs, not the perpetrator, is to blame; and that “strong/independent/powerful/ older people cannot be victims”.