Well I hope to god this comes to pass: DTel article:
I've had 26 years of sleepless nights over women killed by violent men - could they finally be over?
ByLaura Richards, FORMER HEAD OF THE HOMICIDE PREVENTION UNIT, NEW SCOTLAND YARD19 December 2021 • 11:00am
Laura Richards has worked at Scotland Yard and is the founder of Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service
Violence against women is finally a priority under a new policing framework announced on Thurday and I am screaming. It’s been a long time coming.
The past 18 months have seen two watershed moments for policing: Sarah Everard’s abduction, rape and murder in March 2021 by a serving police officer who had a history of exposing himself to women. And the abhorrent sharing of photographs of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman’s dead bodies by two male officers in June last year.
But there have been many other failures in the past two decades, where women have reported violent men to the police, been let down or ignored, and then have been murdered by the same man they tried to seek help over.
Women like Hollie Gazzard, 20, who was stalked and killed by Asher Maslin in the hairdressing salon that she worked in February 2014. Hollie reported him to police in Gloucester many times but there was no investigation, despite the fact that Maslin had been involved in 24 previous violent offences including three on Hollie, and 12 on former partners.
Women like Shana Grice, 19, who was stalked by her ex Michael Lane, a man she had reported to Sussex Police many times and who had previously abused 13 girls, who had also reported him for stalking. Despite this, there was no focus on Lane’s behaviour or history – instead, outrageously, Shana was issued with a fixed penalty notice for wasting police time. Lane was interviewed by police for just 12 minutes. In August 2016 he broke in Shana’s house and murdered her.
These failures are happening every single day, all over the country. This is not about process per se - although that does play a role. This is about a culture of misogyny and institutionalised sexism, where women are routinely dismissed and male perpetrators are allowed to offend with impunity.
Following each murder, a police officer states that it ‘was an isolated incident’ and ‘lessons will be learned’ - but they never are. It’s a pattern of behaviour. Perpetrators almost always have a history of abusing women. Ask anyone who watches or listens to true crime shows, and they will tell you that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour.
This is rarely uppermost in mind in policing, yet, I cannot think of one single case across my 26-year-old career profiling violent men where this does not ring true.
No one person or body collates all the information around these cases, and what’s more, there is no single agency to ensure governance and accountability, or that recommendations are put into place. Perpetrators learn the systems. They get better at what they do. They are motivated by power and control. They move, change their name and fly under the radar.
And more importantly there has been no national framework to proactively identify, assess and manage these dangerous men – until now. On Wednesday, a new national commitment to protect women and girls in England and Wales was announced. It's what I've been waiting and campaigning for, over more than two decades.
This victory means that for the first time there will be a national approach to proactively identifying the most dangerous and serial perpetrators of violence. There will be an onus on police officers to check perpetrator's histories and investigate them - as well as target them overtly and covertly just like they do terrorists. It will send a clear message that they will be held responsible and accountable for their behaviour.
The new policing strategy will focus on:
I started profiling domestic violence perpetrators and stalkers in 2000 and published a report called ‘Getting Away with It: a profile of the domestic violence sexual offenders in serious offenders’ in the Metropolitan Police Service, highlighting how dangerous these perpetrators are and that many abuse multiple women.
I made the recommendation that there should be a Metropolitan Police Service-wide and national framework to proactively identify, assess and manage the most dangerous and violent men who harm women.
And since then I have continued to highlight case after case where the histories of serial abusers have not been joined up, with serious - often fatal - consequences for women and children.
Shana Grice, who was murdered by her ex-partner in 2016. He had previous abuse and stalking reports against his name
Every three days a woman is killed by a man. I have worked with many of the families and know that most of these murders are preventable. It's soul destroying to know that yet another report will be written detailing the lessons to be learned and yet no real change will occur.
The cases are traumatic, distressing, angry-making and haunting. I've had sleepless nights and across the years I have written hundreds of briefing reports for senior police leaders and Parliamentarians, with victims voices and the women who have been murdered named.
I've been stalked myself and know firsthand the toll it takes - and how frustrating and distressing it is that the onus is placed on you, the victim, to change your behaviour. Your credibility is questioned, not the perpetrators.
Every year I hope it will be the year that real change happens and that I don't have to look another father or mother in the eyes as they tell me they don't want their daughter's murder to be in vain. I'm an optimistic person but I see the same lessons repeated over and over again, and perpetrator's allowed to re-offend without sanction or fear of consequence.
The cases haunt me, and they should haunt everyone. Femicide is at an all time high and not only that: when women turn to the police for help, they are most often seen as the problem. I've been banging this drum for a long time (often, I have been seen as a 'difficult woman'), advocating for women who have been silenced - and far too many who have been silenced forever.
Women like Jayden Parkinson, Clare Wood, Jane Clough, Maria Stubbings, Alice Ruggles, Molly McClaren, Suzanne Van Hagan, Cherylee Shenann and Janine Waterworth. Natalie Saunders, Kayleigh Hanks, Cheryl Gabriel Hooper, Caroline Devlin and Susan Nicholson, Pearl Black and Janet Scott, Kerri McAuley, Patricia Sykes and Donna Wilson - to name a few.
Since Sarah Everard’s murder at least 84 women have been killed by men, according to the Femicide Census, 2021. At least 18 women have been killed by serving or retired police officers over the last 14 years in the UK.
Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving police officer in March 2021
It’s time the police got their house in order. Under this new framework all police forces in England and Wales will work to challenge sexism and misogyny in policing and try and rebuild trust and confidence in police culture, standards and approach to violence against women and girls.
For more than 20 years, I have been saying that violent men should live in fear, not women and girls. Across that time I have seen police pilots and initiatives start with gusto and then come to a grinding halt when those who began them are promoted and move on.
I often wonder how many women would have been saved if such vital work had been continued and rolled out nationally. But here we are in 2021 with an announcement from the police and no communication with me. That doesn't bode well. The police need to listen to the right experts and some of us have been doing this work for a long time.
The police need to send the message through their actions, more than their words, that women will be taken seriously when they report and that perpetrators will be relentlessly and proactively pursued. That should be the message but the harder part is delivering on it. Having worked in the police, I know that smashing the institutionalised culture of sexism will not happen overnight.
The hope is that the new national strategy is the first step which will lead to better intervention and prevention and women being taken seriously when they report. In time this should lead to more focused investigations, an increase in prosecutions and a reduction in femicide, serious harm and repeat victimisation.
It will mean that women and girls will be better protected. However, it hangs on effective leadership and implementation across all police services as well as a national database for violent perpetrators, specialist led training and, in the longer term, a multi-agency problem solving approach to perpetrators which is on a statutory footing.
Male violence towards women is out and out terrorism and it must become everybody's core business to tackle it. Only when women and girls are better protected, will I finally be able to rest.
Laura Richards is a former ACPO Violence Adviser and Head of the Homicide Prevention Unit, New Scotland Yard. She also founded Paladin, the National Stalking Advocacy Service.
I've had 26 years of sleepless nights over women killed by violent men - could they finally be over?
ByLaura Richards, FORMER HEAD OF THE HOMICIDE PREVENTION UNIT, NEW SCOTLAND YARD19 December 2021 • 11:00am
Laura Richards has worked at Scotland Yard and is the founder of Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service
Violence against women is finally a priority under a new policing framework announced on Thurday and I am screaming. It’s been a long time coming.
The past 18 months have seen two watershed moments for policing: Sarah Everard’s abduction, rape and murder in March 2021 by a serving police officer who had a history of exposing himself to women. And the abhorrent sharing of photographs of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman’s dead bodies by two male officers in June last year.
But there have been many other failures in the past two decades, where women have reported violent men to the police, been let down or ignored, and then have been murdered by the same man they tried to seek help over.
Women like Hollie Gazzard, 20, who was stalked and killed by Asher Maslin in the hairdressing salon that she worked in February 2014. Hollie reported him to police in Gloucester many times but there was no investigation, despite the fact that Maslin had been involved in 24 previous violent offences including three on Hollie, and 12 on former partners.
Women like Shana Grice, 19, who was stalked by her ex Michael Lane, a man she had reported to Sussex Police many times and who had previously abused 13 girls, who had also reported him for stalking. Despite this, there was no focus on Lane’s behaviour or history – instead, outrageously, Shana was issued with a fixed penalty notice for wasting police time. Lane was interviewed by police for just 12 minutes. In August 2016 he broke in Shana’s house and murdered her.
These failures are happening every single day, all over the country. This is not about process per se - although that does play a role. This is about a culture of misogyny and institutionalised sexism, where women are routinely dismissed and male perpetrators are allowed to offend with impunity.
Following each murder, a police officer states that it ‘was an isolated incident’ and ‘lessons will be learned’ - but they never are. It’s a pattern of behaviour. Perpetrators almost always have a history of abusing women. Ask anyone who watches or listens to true crime shows, and they will tell you that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour.
This is rarely uppermost in mind in policing, yet, I cannot think of one single case across my 26-year-old career profiling violent men where this does not ring true.
No one person or body collates all the information around these cases, and what’s more, there is no single agency to ensure governance and accountability, or that recommendations are put into place. Perpetrators learn the systems. They get better at what they do. They are motivated by power and control. They move, change their name and fly under the radar.
And more importantly there has been no national framework to proactively identify, assess and manage these dangerous men – until now. On Wednesday, a new national commitment to protect women and girls in England and Wales was announced. It's what I've been waiting and campaigning for, over more than two decades.
This victory means that for the first time there will be a national approach to proactively identifying the most dangerous and serial perpetrators of violence. There will be an onus on police officers to check perpetrator's histories and investigate them - as well as target them overtly and covertly just like they do terrorists. It will send a clear message that they will be held responsible and accountable for their behaviour.
The new policing strategy will focus on:
- Relentlessly pursuing and actively managing and targeting the most dangerous and prolific perpetrators
- Better use of police powers to protect women and girls and to manage and disrupt perpetrators
- Adopt a trauma-aware approach at all levels to better support victims through criminal justice process, and focus on evidence-led prosecutions
- Enhanced supervision of investigations into violence against women and girls.
I started profiling domestic violence perpetrators and stalkers in 2000 and published a report called ‘Getting Away with It: a profile of the domestic violence sexual offenders in serious offenders’ in the Metropolitan Police Service, highlighting how dangerous these perpetrators are and that many abuse multiple women.
I made the recommendation that there should be a Metropolitan Police Service-wide and national framework to proactively identify, assess and manage the most dangerous and violent men who harm women.
And since then I have continued to highlight case after case where the histories of serial abusers have not been joined up, with serious - often fatal - consequences for women and children.
Shana Grice, who was murdered by her ex-partner in 2016. He had previous abuse and stalking reports against his name
Every three days a woman is killed by a man. I have worked with many of the families and know that most of these murders are preventable. It's soul destroying to know that yet another report will be written detailing the lessons to be learned and yet no real change will occur.
The cases are traumatic, distressing, angry-making and haunting. I've had sleepless nights and across the years I have written hundreds of briefing reports for senior police leaders and Parliamentarians, with victims voices and the women who have been murdered named.
I've been stalked myself and know firsthand the toll it takes - and how frustrating and distressing it is that the onus is placed on you, the victim, to change your behaviour. Your credibility is questioned, not the perpetrators.
Every year I hope it will be the year that real change happens and that I don't have to look another father or mother in the eyes as they tell me they don't want their daughter's murder to be in vain. I'm an optimistic person but I see the same lessons repeated over and over again, and perpetrator's allowed to re-offend without sanction or fear of consequence.
The cases haunt me, and they should haunt everyone. Femicide is at an all time high and not only that: when women turn to the police for help, they are most often seen as the problem. I've been banging this drum for a long time (often, I have been seen as a 'difficult woman'), advocating for women who have been silenced - and far too many who have been silenced forever.
Women like Jayden Parkinson, Clare Wood, Jane Clough, Maria Stubbings, Alice Ruggles, Molly McClaren, Suzanne Van Hagan, Cherylee Shenann and Janine Waterworth. Natalie Saunders, Kayleigh Hanks, Cheryl Gabriel Hooper, Caroline Devlin and Susan Nicholson, Pearl Black and Janet Scott, Kerri McAuley, Patricia Sykes and Donna Wilson - to name a few.
Since Sarah Everard’s murder at least 84 women have been killed by men, according to the Femicide Census, 2021. At least 18 women have been killed by serving or retired police officers over the last 14 years in the UK.
Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving police officer in March 2021
It’s time the police got their house in order. Under this new framework all police forces in England and Wales will work to challenge sexism and misogyny in policing and try and rebuild trust and confidence in police culture, standards and approach to violence against women and girls.
For more than 20 years, I have been saying that violent men should live in fear, not women and girls. Across that time I have seen police pilots and initiatives start with gusto and then come to a grinding halt when those who began them are promoted and move on.
I often wonder how many women would have been saved if such vital work had been continued and rolled out nationally. But here we are in 2021 with an announcement from the police and no communication with me. That doesn't bode well. The police need to listen to the right experts and some of us have been doing this work for a long time.
The police need to send the message through their actions, more than their words, that women will be taken seriously when they report and that perpetrators will be relentlessly and proactively pursued. That should be the message but the harder part is delivering on it. Having worked in the police, I know that smashing the institutionalised culture of sexism will not happen overnight.
The hope is that the new national strategy is the first step which will lead to better intervention and prevention and women being taken seriously when they report. In time this should lead to more focused investigations, an increase in prosecutions and a reduction in femicide, serious harm and repeat victimisation.
It will mean that women and girls will be better protected. However, it hangs on effective leadership and implementation across all police services as well as a national database for violent perpetrators, specialist led training and, in the longer term, a multi-agency problem solving approach to perpetrators which is on a statutory footing.
Male violence towards women is out and out terrorism and it must become everybody's core business to tackle it. Only when women and girls are better protected, will I finally be able to rest.
Laura Richards is a former ACPO Violence Adviser and Head of the Homicide Prevention Unit, New Scotland Yard. She also founded Paladin, the National Stalking Advocacy Service.
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