Sarah Payne, 8 yr old, abducted and murdered in 2000 July west sussex by Roy whiting who had been convicted in 1995 of abducting n indecently assaulting another 8 yr old
The News of the World's role July 2000, it 'named and shamed' fifty people it claimed were paedophiles. The paper promised to continue until it had revealed the identity of every paedophile in Britain.
The campaign eventually succeeded. However, it should be noted that while anyone can ask the police, they are not obliged to disclose information and will only do so if they judge that the child is at risk of harm and the disclosure is necessary to safeguard the child.
The Child Sex Offender Disclosure scheme was the result of a successful campaign to allow parents, carers and others to ask the police if a convicted sex offender has contact with a specific child.
Clare’s law - Clare’s father Michael launched a campaign to change the law to enable women to know about their partner’s violent past.
• He worked for four years, gathering evidence, organising petitions and winning support from charities, politicians and the media for a change in the law.
2014 the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme was rolled out across all 43 police forces in England and Wales.
• The DVDS sets out 2 procedures the police can use in disclosing information about an individuals previous violent and abusive offending to their partner:
The right to ask- this allows a member of the public to apply to the police to disclose information. They can ask about their own partner or the partner of someone they know.
2) The right to know- this allows the police to disclose information to protect a potential victim, even without having been asked to do so.
2009 Clare wood in Manchester beaten raped n strangled n body set on fire by George Appleton (ex) - rs ended in 2098 but he continued to harass her - he had a history of convictions for violence towards women including a 5yr prison sentence for holding an ex gf at knifepoint & repeated harassment , threats etc - after killing Clare he went on the run n was later found hung
Ann Ming - campaigned for a change in the law, lobbying politicians and using the press, TV and radio to publicise the case.
• The 2003 Criminal Justice Act was the result of Ann Ming’s successful campaign. It permitted certain serious crimes to be re-tried.
The Stephen Lawrence Case
• Calls for a change in the rule were also supported by Sir William Macpherson in his report on the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence .
• Police mishandling of the investigation had resulted in a failed prosecution of three of the five original suspects in 1996.
• Subsequently, new DNA evidence emerged to link one of three, Gary Dobson, to the killing. Dobson was re-tried and convicted of the murder, along with another suspect, David Norris, who had not been tried in 1996.
Changing the Double Jeopardy Law
• The D J Law stops people being tried again for a crime of which they have been acquitted.
• However, the rule can lead to injustice where new evidence indicates that someone previously acquitted was in fact guilty.
The Case of Billy Dunlop
-Julie Hogg was murdered in 1989 and Billy Dunlop was charged with the crime. However, after 2 successive juries failed to reach a verdict, he was acquitted.
-In 1998 he admitted the murder of Hogg. No action could be taken in relation to this murder because of the double jeopardy rule.
Pressure gps
persuading the politicians who make the laws that change is needed.
Protection Against Stalking
• In 2011 PAS launched a campaign to introduce a new law making stalking a specific offence.
• The way the police were dealing with stalking was inadequate and haphazard. They lacked a clear policy and investigations were often left to individual officers’ discretion.
• Victims were not being taken seriously.
The Campaign
• PAS concluded that the existing law was not fit for purpose.
• PAS set up a an independent parliamentary inquiry, persuading MPs and peers from all parties to serve on it.
• The inquiry lasted several months, hearing evidence from victims and their relatives, academic experts, lawyers, police and probation officers.
• This campaign was a success and the report was published in February 2012 with the support of 60 MPs and peers, the Police Federation and the Magistrates’ Association.
• This became the Protection of Freedoms Act in 2012 and made stalking a criminal offence.
The campaign was successful for many reasons.
• The law was changed
• Voices of victims and practitioners was heard.
• A wide range of support was gathered from a wide range of support groups.
• The campaign was kept in the publics eye through the media.
• MP’s who had the power to change the law were lobbied.
• They gained support from all political parties.
INQUEST
• The work of the pressure group INQUEST focuses on state-related deaths, such as those of people in police custody, prisons, immigration detention centres and psychiatric care.
• It has been involved in many inquests, including deaths in the Grenfell Tower Fire, the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and the police shooting of Mark Duggan that preceded the London Riots.
• INQUEST campaigns to ensure that investigations into deaths treat bereaved people with dignity and respect. It is involved in a range of activities:
INQUEST
Casework- INQUEST carries out specialist casework to support bereaved people so they can establish the truth about a death that has occurred while someone is in the care of the state.
2) Accountability- INQUEST aims to ensure the state institutions are held accountable when they fail to safeguard those in their care.
3) Changing policies- INQUEST aims to spread the lessons learnt from investigations in order to prevent further deaths. It gathers evidence from its casework, conducts research and uses its information to press public bodies to change their policies.