Clares law

• In 2009 36 year old Clare Wood of Salford was beaten, raped and strangled and her body set on fire by George Appleton with whom she had previously been having a relationship in 2008 this relationship ended however she was still harassed by Appleton
• Unknown to Claire, Appleton had a history of convictions for violence against women including a 5 year prison sentence for holding an ex-girlfriend at knifepoint. He also had convictions for harassment and threats.

  Appleton went on the run and was eventually found hanged.
• Claire's father Micheal had strong misgivings about the relationship but he too was unaware of Appleton's history.

  Micheal found out that after her death Claire had made several complaints to the greater Manchester Police as Appleton continued to harass her after the relationship had ended but they did nothing 
• The inquest into her death was 26 months long and afterwards the coroner wrote to the home office wondering why she was not made aware of his past
• Angry at the failing of the police, Micheal launched a campaign to change the law to enable women to know about their partner's violent past. He worked for 4 years gathering evidence, organising petitions and winning support from charities, politicians and the media for a change in the law 
• In 2013 the government introduced a pilot scheme in four police areas, following its success, in 2014 the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) was rolled out around 43 police forces in England and Wales
• The DVDS has two procedures that the police can use:

  • The right to ask - Allows a member of the public to apply to the police to disclose information about their partner or the partner of someone they know
  • The right to know - allows the police to disclose information to protect a potential victim, even without having been asked to do so 
• Since the scheme began there have been many disclosures:

  • In 2018, 6496 ‘right to ask’ results were made and 2,575 were granted
  • However there is a big difference between police forces - Cumbria police disclose information in 96% of cases whereas Bedfordshire police only disclosed 7% of cases