I met with the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips on September 19 2024 to discuss serial and high risk domestic abusers and stalkers being proactively identified by police and managed like terrorists.

We discussed a number of high risk cases first of all and I shared my frustration about how long it has taken to do something that is common sense.

To be crystal clear we want to ensure the histories of violent men are joined up which includes both those who have been convicted and those who have not but are abusing and harming women - and for police to use the same tactics used for counterterrorism to disrupt and stop them.

These men are terrorists - terrorists of women and children - and for too long they have been allowed to offend with impunity, getting bolder and escalating their behaviour to murder in some cases.

We started doing this in the Metropolitan Police Service from 2001 following my report called Getting Away With It: A Profile of the Domestic Violence Sexual and Serious Offenders and Findings from the Multi-Agency Murder Reviews.

I found that 1 in 8 offenders were serial and high risk and 1 in 12 were raping inside and outside the home. We had to make the links that they were dangerous to significant women and to the wider public.

We started problem solving the perpetrators (most were unconvicted because the conviction rate was and still is low for domestic abuse and stalking) and joining up their history of offending using the crime and intelligence databases. This had not been done before because of the 'just a domestic' culture. But what I was seeing, profiling the cases for the first time, was just how dangerous these men were, some escalated to murder.

This is where the homicide prevention work began. The Met started joining up the histories of violent men and problem solving them and risk managing them using the same tactics we used for terrorists and sex offenders. And it worked. Not only that I create the risk tool kit called the SPECSS and latterly the DASH Risk Identification, Assessment and Management Model to identify them and focus on problem solving the offenders (again mostly unconvicted).

We want all police forces to do this so that if a perpetrator moves, their history moves with them and is available on a national database. If they start a new relationship the new partner should be told about the history.

If someone is convicted of stalking or coercive control, we want them to automatically be referred to and managed by the statutory Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements and placed on ViSOR - the Violent and Sexual Offenders REGISTER. That was the focus of our amendment in the Victims and Prisoners Bill, an amendment that was washed up with the election. 

Currently this is still not happening even for convicted stalkers despite the Government updating MAPPA guidance (which we said would not work) to include domestic abusers and stalkers and it still does not happen routinely for unconvicted serial and high risk abusers.

DATA SHOWS IT'S STILL NOT HAPPENING AND WOMEN ARE LEFT AT RISK:

A 2022 Joint Inspection of MAPPA found that of the 40 offenders identified by police forces as posing the HIGHEST risk to women in 2021, ONLY 3 were managed under MAPPA. In 2023 the National MAPPA research study team reviewed a sample of rejected referrals and found that 87% of those they considered should have been accepted for MAPPA management but were not, were domestic abusers.

This is exactly what I found in 2001 and there has been NO change. That is what we are trying to fix.

The 'REGISTER'

When people talk about a 'register' we are not always talking about the same thing. It means different things in different parts of the world. In the UK we have a framework and a database called ViSOR the Violent and Sexual Offenders REGISTER- which has been shorthanded to the register - and we want these dangerous offenders to be included and NOT excluded by virtue of the fact it is domestic violence and stalking related. These are the most dangerous offenders and they must be proactively identified, assessed and managed - those who are convicted and unconvicted.

A new report published by the University of Essex on Thursday 26 September concluded a register would not help. Unfortunately, they have not understood that our campaign was about the unconvicted AND convicted offenders and the amendment tabled in the Victims and Prisoners Bill focused on the convicted offenders (a smaller per cent) because that was the scope of that Bill and we still have to ensure this small group are managed by MAPPA and are placed on the national database. We have repeatedly asked the police to proactively identify the most dangerous offenders and most of them are unconvicted. It's a shame the University of Essex disregarded all the information and briefings I sent them. What a waste of time and money to make the mark and miss the point.

Thank goodness Jess Philips and the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper get it and have worked on this alongside us. 

We are laser focused on protecting women and working with the current Government to get this right. The only way that can keep women and children safe is to proactively join up the histories of the violent men who are terrorising and abusing them - and stop them. That takes a change in culture and resources and a multi-agency and national approach and we have said this all along.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

If you want to help, please donate to Zoe Dronfield's Go Fund Me called Justice for Victims of Serial Abusers. Zoe is spearheading this campaign with John Clough and I and she is fighting for justice in this precedential case that could affect all victims.

Thanks,

Laura xox