Father’s fight for Clare’s Law leaps forward
PROGRESS: Michael Browns proposal for Clares Law is being put forward as part of a justice bill. (d02091102)
A FATHER’S fight for a law to protect victims of domestic violence edged closer to victory this week.
On Monday, Michael Brown, of Batley, presented 10 Downing Street with a petition calling for a ‘Clare’s Law’, which would give men and women the right to know if their partners had a history of abuse.
The campaign is named after his daughter, who was murdered by her ex-partner in Salford in February 2009.
The proposal – for a disclosure scheme allowing police to warn partners of an individual’s violent past – is now one step closer to being made law.
It is being put to Parliament as part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2010-12.
It is going to the House of Lords on March 3, after more than a year of campaigning by Mr Brown.
Mr Brown said the figures surrounding domestic violence in the UK still staggered him.
He said: “In 2007/8 it cost this country around £16 billion. Just domestic violence.
“We have had nothing but support from anybody and everybody.
“Everybody has been rooting for us and saying it’s about time it was taken on.”
The campaign received further publicity this week when West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison backed the proposals.
He said: “You will never find a chief constable who does not think offending behaviour should be made more public.
“I support it in principle and I applaud Clare’s relatives who are pursuing this in her name.”
Mr Brown’s daughter Clare Wood was brutally murdered by her ex-partner George Appleton after she met him on Facebook.
The mother-of-one suffered months of sexual assault and death threats before Appleton before strangled her and set her on fire.
Police knew he had a history of domestic violence but were prevented by the law from warning Clare of the danger.
Appleton later hanged himself.
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Weather for Batley
Thursday 23 May 2013
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