Since going through my ordeal in 2014 there has been case upon case of domestic abusers and stalkers who are known to police yet they are missed, they are getting away with it and allowed to continue to abuse their victims and their families.  These victims and families are then thrown into a system that favours the human rights of offenders.  Dealing with the system can often be the hardest part.

No-one choses to be a victim, yet on reporting domestic abuse or stalking you are often met with disbelief, the offending is minimised and you are made to feel like you are the one somehow to blame.  This is detrimental to victims.  The police response to these crimes HAS to change.  They still claim to be learning from murder cases but are they?!

#unfollowme

Don't get me wrong the police are not all bad however something is clearly going very very wrong, the stats speak for themselves.  In 2018 myself, Laura Richards and Broadly Media (Vice) got together to push the serial register campaign and some investigation was done around offences where there was police involvement prior to a murder.

And as you probably know since launching this campaign on change.org we have done all sorts of media; radio, newspapers, TV, we have written to Ministers, met with Ministers, been to Number 10, it has been raised in the House's of Parliament yet here we are in 2020 and NOTHING has changed.  No procedures, no processes, no legislation...nothing!  And victims are being murdered, lives destroyed, yet the response is still the same from police after every homicide review "We will learn lessons."

Will you?!  When?!

Laura Richards (Founder of Paladin Nationals Stalking Advocacy Service) always said to me 'historic behaviour is a good indicator of future behaviour' and well that is true in the case of the offenders and actually those who are meant to charge and convict these offenders.  They also seem to be following the same pattern.

They say the same thing over and over again.  Do they hope we won't notice that they use the same lyrics and narrative after every murder?

So the #unfollowme campaign we teamed up with Broadly using freedom of information laws, Broadly asked every police force in the UK how many women over the last 3 years were killed by an abusive partner, ex-partner, or stalker - even after they reported their threatening behaviour to the police.

The stats speak for themselves!

From 2015-2017 there were 60 deaths of women who were killed in this way.  And do we see a decline in these numbers?  No we do not!  There were 3 murders within the first week of 2020.

So, I decided to do some digging into my own case. 16 women have come forward since my story broke in the National press back in 2014, all claiming to also be victims of Smith (the perpetrator of the ferocious attack against me).  It also turns out that one of those victims was and still is a serving police officer for West Midlands Police so I wanted to understand what happened in her case and if they got it so wrong in her case, what chance do the rest of us have?

Police Failures and Bias

It turns out there are a multitude of not just failings but down right abuse of power, victim blaming, misconduct and minimising done by her own employers.  Instead of standing by her they blamed and vilified her.  I have read her statements and she has recounted to me the absolute abhorrent treatment she was given over reporting Smiths abuse of her.  Her employers who should actually have prioritised her well-being, instead bullied her, she felt forced to retract statements and this allowed Smith to have a supreme feeling of inflated importance and fed into his delusion that somehow his behaviour was not a crime.  Let me get this straight right now, he is not in any way innocent of those crimes in my opinion, he is capable of murder!  I know what he is capable of.     

So, this threw up loads of questions in my mind.  Had they have dealt with him properly in the first place would I have ever met him?  Had he been given proper rehabilitation would he have reoffended?  If his space for offending been closed down would these women have been safe?  How about if the police hadn't given him perceived power by minimising the victims accounts of what was happened and allowed his delusions of grandeur to inflate to the point of thinking he could get away with murder would he have continued his abuse against women?  

Its actually not on and it is down right negligent and they should be held to account.

Please help and donate

So I am now looking to take legal action myself against the force, yes I am the victim yet I have to - at my own expense - fund a huge court case to get the justice that actually had victim number 1 been given, maybe we would have all been saved from the abuses of this monster.

Having campaigned for the last 5 years I am so grateful for your continued support with this fight to get the serial register implemented and now we are going force the hand of the police to make these changes with a landmark case in the Supreme Court in London, however this comes with a price.  

Our ask of you is a small donation to help us get this into the court room.  The court will not even entertain us without the initial court costs which will be in the region of £30,000!  Eye watering i know! and disgusting we are forced to take action into our own hands.  He (the perpetrator) however would get legal aid, how is that fair?

Please donate HERE to our Just Giving page - This link does not work please follow below instructions to donate - thank you in advance.

********************************UPDATED*****************************

Please search Go Fund me 'Justice for failed victims of domestic abuse' or link to the Go Fund me page is in the article below.  

I don't think change.org allow GoFundMe links as I keep updating this and the link gets broken.

Recent media and link to Go Fund me Mother almost killed by ex-partner suing Police

We did inform West Midlands Police with a letter before action, their response was shocking.  They threatened us with a costs order.  So they want to bankrupt me for daring to challenge the broken system.  Its funny how they will come down so hard on victims yet serial offenders are roaming among us.  

This case will save lives!  Please donate.

It will force the police to act appropriately on complaints based on historic behaviour.  Currently they clearly do not go far enough as we can see from the stats and consistent message they will do better.  Its not enough to have a postcode lottery.  We want to eradicate domestic violence, abuse and stalking so we need to make the necessary changes to ensure the law deals with the most dangerous of offenders correctly.

Thank you in advance

Zoe Dronfield

Ambassador for Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service

and on behalf of John and Penny Clough parents of Jane Clough #justiceforjane

Laura Richards - Founder of Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service

We stand United to eradicate domestic abuse and stalking!  

Together we will get this change!