Victim of torture calls for Clare’s law

A WOMAN who was tortured by her partner has backed calls for the Scottish Government to change the law to help prevent domestic abuse.

Clare’s Law, currently being trialled in England and Wales, gives women the right to know if their partner has a history of violence.

Suzanne Small, from Glasgow, says it could have saved her from a two-year ordeal at the hands of boyfriend Joseph Loughran.

Loughran, 51, tried to strangle Ms Small, burned her with cigarettes, cut her with knives and tried to drown her in the bath.

When she went to the police in 2009, it emerged he had attacked four ex-girlfriends in the past 30 years.

He was jailed for nine years last August. Prosecutors said it was one of the worst cases of domestic abuse in Scottish history.

Ms Small, 47, says if the law had been in place, it might have encouraged Loughran’s victims to report him to police. She said: “I wish I had known what he was capable of before he got the chance to strip me of everything I had.”

Clare’s Law follows a campaign by Michael Brown, from Aberdeen, whose daughter, Clare Wood, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, George Appleton, at her home in, Greater Manchester, in 2009.

Ms Wood, 36, a mother-ofone, had met Appleton on Facebook, unaware of his history of violence against women, including repeated harassment, threats and kidnapping one woman at knifepoint.