Woman almost killed after police staffer failed to give details of her abusive partner in Clare’s Law application
One woman, who had an application made to Wiltshire Police about her partner in 2022, went on to be stabbed several times and nearly died, it has been revealed
A former staff member at Wiltshire Police put a ‘significant number of women’ at risk of abuse, LBC has heard, by refusing to give them information about their violent partners.
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Gavin Hudson, 40, was employed as a researcher in the force to respond to requests under Clare’s Law, which gives people a right to ask about the criminal history of someone they’re in a relationship with.
A misconduct panel has found him guilty of gross misconduct, after he routinely failed to disclose the information, in a move the force’s chief constable has apologised for, describing it as ‘a catastrophic service failure’.
One woman, who had an application made to Wiltshire Police about her partner in 2022, went on to be stabbed several times and nearly died, it has been revealed.
Her boyfriend had a violent and sexual offender warning marker against his name, which Hudson failed to research.
The man has since been jailed for attempted murder following the attack.
In another application made in the same year, Hudson failed to identify that the record of a man contained details of a domestic assault on a previous partner. He closed the application without any further action.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said its investigation into Hudson was placed in ‘the most serious category of failure’.
Derrick Campbell, director at the IOPC, told LBC: “He simply didn’t do anything with the requests; he didn’t do any checks, he didn’t feed back to any of these women. In some cases he just said ‘no, everything’s okay’ when he didn’t do any checks at all.
“Those women then entered into relationships with these men and were violently abused because they didn’t know they were walking into these situations. That’s the level of failure here.
“Clare’s Law is in place to prevent that happening to ensure women at least have information to make informed choices about their relationship. When that system breaks down, it leaves women exposed.”
Clare’s Law was introduced in 2014, after the murder of Clare Wood in Salford by her abusive ex-boyfriend.
The inquest into her death revealed that he had a history of domestic abuse which was recorded by the police but couldn’t be disclosed because of the Data Protection Act.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme changed that, by giving individuals or their family members the right to ask about their current or ex-partner’s history.
Last year, 58,612 applications were made under Clare’s Law in England and Wales - four times as many than in 2018.
Gavin Hudson worked in Wiltshire Police’s control room and contact centre before moving into a research role with the force’s domestic abuse team in 2015.
The IOPC found he had skipped through online training courses designed to prepare him for his domestic abuse research position, completing some of the mandatory courses in a matter of seconds.
He was previously investigated by the police watchdog in 2019 and in 2020 for failing to follow procedure as part of his job.
LBC understands Hudson was given management advice following those investigations with more audits carried out on his work.
Wiltshire Police has since found that he had worked on more than 3500 separate Clare’s Law applications during his career in the domestic abuse command which have all since been reviewed.
Previously, Chief Constable Catherine Roper said they’d identified 25 “catastrophic failings” in the service provided.
Once Hudson realised ‘the net was closing in on him’ he resigned from the force and has never explained his actions, the IOPC has said.
Derrick Campbell, director at the watchdog, told LBC that the revelations have ‘already sent shockwaves’ across other police forces as he urged them all to take note.
If one of the women who’d contacted Wiltshire Police had been killed, he said it would have been a greater failure of the system than Clare Wood’s murder was in 2009.
“I can’t think of anything worse than someone knowing something is wrong and you fail to tell them that they're in danger and allow them to walk into a dangerous situation.
“The level of failure and neglect in that area is in my view one of the highest levels of failure.
“We rightly expect that when we speak to the police that they will be providing a service that will protect us and when they fail to do that the impact on society is quite devastating.”
Gavin Hudson was found guilty of gross misconduct by a panel which decided that he would have been dismissed without notice had he not resigned from the force.
He’s also been barred from taking any future jobs linked to policing.