Stalking and coercive control are crimes that are insidious and terrifying and yet many still do not understand them. They are patterned crimes and the abuser goes from victim to victim. Often these men are not held accountable for their behaviour. Being unconvicted does not make a perpetrator less dangerous - it makes them more dangerous as they are being enabled.

Gracie Spinks, Alice Ruggles, Shana Grice, Hollie Gazzard, Justene Reece, Kirsty Treloar and Jane Clough were abused, stalked and brutally murdered by serial perpetrators.

Gracie Spinks reported Michael Sellers to police. He was stalking her and there were eight other women who made complaints before Gracie. Sellers was dismissed from work due to his behaviour towards women.

The warning signs were all there but the police did not investigate him - a familiar pattern. They did not interview Sellers nor did they request the disciplinary file from his workplace, Xbite. Instead, they gave him 'words of advice' about his behaviour. 

On May 6 a bag of weapons were found close to where Gracie kept her horse, Paddy. It contained knives, an axe and a hammer and a note "Don't Lie." Officers dismissed it.

On June 18th Gracie went to see Paddy. Just after 8am she was found lying on the ground and a man was seen running away. She had been stabbed 10 times including a fatal wound to the neck. Gracie died at at about 850am.

How many more women and girls must die before the Government takes action to ensure these serial perpetrators are proactively identified, assessed and managed just like sex offenders whether they have been convicted or not?

Often the perpetrators are male and the victims are female. Sadly, there are many  cases where the entitled male abuser escalates to murder and, despite clear  warning signs, their violent history was not joined up by police, prisons and probation services. We have to change this. 

Each police force must identify the top 10-20 most dangerous and serial domestic abusers and stalkers. Many of these men have not been convicted. These perpetrators should be referred to the Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). They should be included on the national database called ViSOR (Violent and Sexual Offenders REGISTER - this is where the shorthand register comes from) and it is being updated and soon to be called MAPPS so their is NATIONAL join up of their histories.

People with a history of domestic abuse and stalking are dangerous and devious just like sex offenders. 

We must make violent men visible and accountable and you can help. 

We need to act now to save lives by protecting women from serial stalkers and domestic violence perpetrators by extending the Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements to ensure that police, prison and probation services proactively identify, track, monitor and manage serial perpetrators. The same tactics used for counter terrorism should be used to deal with these men. They are dangerous and are terrorists of women and children.

We need a cultural shift which will only be obtained through law change, one where we treat stalking and domestic abuse with the seriousness it deserves.  

Please help us to make sure that we protect other women so other families do not go through what the Spinks, Everards, Nessas, Van Hagens, Cloughs, Treloars, Ruggles, Gazzards, Kezas, Reeces, Mcdermotts, McLarens, Bests and many many more have.

YOU CAN HELP: 

WRITE to your MP & the Home Secretary YVETTE COOPER.

1. ASK that each police service identify 10-20 serial and HIGH risk stalkers and domestic abusers, that they are referred to the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements and that they are included on the same database as sex offenders and terrorists and are problem solved.
2. the provision for the establishment of Independent Stalking Advocacy Caseworkers (ISACs) to support victims of stalking

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TOGETHER we can create real change to better protect women and girls.

Thank you.

Laura Richards,

Criminal Behavioural Analyst. Law Reformer, Former Head of Homicide Prevention Unit New Scotland Yard, Founder Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service