Finally, 22 years on serial and high risk domestic abusers will be included on the Violent and Sex Offenders Register. This has been a long time coming and there have been so many highs and lows with this hard fought campaign!

I first recommended this should happen in 2001 in a report I wrote when I worked at at New Scotland Yard entitled 'Getting Away with it: A Strategic Overview of Domestic Violence Sexual Assault and Serious Incident Analysis.'

I profiled and tracked 400 perpetrators. The cases were shocking and horrific. These men were harming multiple women and children, escalating their behaviour and getting away with it - which green lit them to do it again and again. 

I have been recommending it ever since and I've written scores of reports and Parliamentary briefings since and worked with incredible survivors including Zoe Dronfield, Rachel Court, Georgia Gabriel Hooper and families bereaved including John and Penny Clough and Celia Peachey to ensure that this happens.

This announcement was included in a raft of new measures today, but it was our work - to include dangerous and serial domestic abusers on the violent and sexual offenders register - that captured the national headlines (and God only knows why Suella Braverman and others failed to let us know.)

Well, perhaps the answer lies on the fact that two years ago the Government voted down our amendment to ensure serial and dangerous violent men were made visible and accountable. They chose to ignore our voices and our detailed plan and opt for more guidance, a perpetrator strategy and to update the database despite our warnings that this would not work without this key law change. We warned we would bring it back to Parliament when it failed.

Since then there have been many horrific cases and murders of women by serial perpetrators including Sabina Nessa, Zara Aleena, Ashley Wadsworth as well as David Carrick who admitted serious 85 offences during a 17 year campaign of terror and attacks against women whilst serving as a Metropolitan Police Officer.

For too long women have not been listened to, believed or prioritised when reporting abuse and violence by men. There has has been a focus on blaming women when abused, blaming women who are murdered or when they disappear and allowing violent men to offend with impunity.

After Sarah Everard's abduction and murder by Wayne Couzen's, a serving Metropolitan Police officer, the Government said that women's safety would be a priority but little changed. Arguably, it's got worse.

Just recently on January 30 2023 I wrote an update to you all saying we would be bringing this back to Parliament - and now this!

It's great news that the law will change to ensure a duty to proactively identify the most dangerous men and manage them via MAPPA and include them on the register. Also included in the new measures is that dangerous perpetrators will be identified BEFORE conviction, just as we recommended.

However, the devil is in the detail and there must be proper investment in this so that there are resources to match.

Cultural change is long overdue and this is a BIG step forward to ensure perpetrators are made visible and accountable for THEIR behaviour and actions. 

This must not be half cocked or used to score political points. It must be done properly and thoughtfully. There's too much at stake lest we continue to count the cost in women and children's lives.

More to come soon. In the meantime please continue to sign and share the petition and amplify our voices and why this work is so important and urgent.

Thank you for all your support you lovely lot.

Laura Richards, Founder of Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service