Clare’s Law was meant to protect women from abusive men – but has it worked?

After being assault by her partner outside the pub where she worked, Saheena had been too scared to reach out for help. But then she received a call from the police.

A horrified member of the public had seen the attack, which left her bruised and scratched, and fearing for Saheena’s safety reported it to the authorities.

Soon after, the police arrived and arrested her boyfriend. While taking Saheena’s statement in his car, one of the attending officers then suggested she use Clare’s Law to find out if her partner, who she’d been with for a year, had a violent history.

But there was one problem: ‘I had never heard of it,’ the 24-year-old tells Metro. 

More formally known as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), Clare’s Law rolled out on March 8, 2014 following the landmark campaign led by the father of Clare Wood, a 36-year-old murdered in 2009 by her ex-boyfriend, George Appleton.

When Clare first met Appleton on Facebook in 2012, she was totally unaware he had a criminal history against women. However, he soon became controlling and harassed, threatened and attempted to assault Clare, who had a young daughter, in the six months they were together.

When she ended their relationship, Appleton still didn’t stop. Even when Clare made a police statement and got a restraining order against him, it wasn’t enough.

Determined to end her life, in February 2009 Appleton strangled Clare and set her on fire. 

In the wake of his daughter’s murder, Michael Wood challenged a legal loophole that kept former abuser’s criminal records confidential. He believed that if his daughter had known about Appleton’s past, what happened to her may have been preventable.

After years of campaigning, ‘Clare’s Law’ was introduced in England and Wales on International Women’s Day, giving people the right to make an application to the police requesting information about a current or ex-partner due to worry about past abuses, on behalf of themselves or for a close friend, neighbour, or family member.

Within 28 days, the person making the request through Clare’s Law should have a police response. 

‘It’s very much about aiming to protect victim survivors who experience violence in the relationship, in the hope that by proxy, it could prevent further violence for that victim survivor as well,’ explains Dr Charlotte Barlow, who has extensively researched the impact of Clare’s Law. 

The legacy of Clare’s Law

After finding out more about the initiative, Saheena decided to make an application to find out if her boyfriend had previously been violent. By then, he had ‘sweet-talked’ his way back into her life and she’d dropped charges against him – but deep down she couldn’t shake the need to know the truth.

‘As a victim, when something like that happens, you try and justify it as a one-off… that he just got angry,’ she explains. ‘I needed proof that this wasn’t my fault, that it was a pattern of behaviour.’

In November 2023, Saheena filled in a form through her local police force website and was told that she’d hear from an officer within a few weeks. 

Just over a month later, she had a video call with a police officer who informed her that her boyfriend had been charged on four occasions, one of which had involved assault on a partner, who like Saheena had dropped the charges.

‘My face dropped,’ she recalls. ‘It was a huge shock.’ 

Armed with this fresh knowledge, Saheena finished with her partner and decided to press charges for the attack. In October 2024, he was found guilty and given a 12-month suspended sentence, and ordered to carry out unpaid work hours and rehabilitation activity. The judge also granted a five-year restraining order, and ordered that he pay Saheena compensation via the court.

‘If it hadn’t been for what I’d discovered through Clare’s Law, I would have stayed with him, thinking I could change him,’ she says.

For the year ending March 2024, it is thought there were around 58,612 applications to the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. While Dr Barlow agrees that it has ‘very good intentions’ and potential, she also believes there’s little evidence to suggest it is working in the way it was intended. 

‘It was successful for some victim survivors, particularly if at the beginning of a relationship,’ she explains. ‘However, we know that most people aren’t going to ask for that information early in a relationship. It’s only when a victim survivor is in the throes of a relationship that it becomes violence and abusive.’

Other concerns that have been shared since its launch include fear of approaching police (especially minority groups) and the false sense of security given when perpetrators aren’t known to the authorities.

However, Dr Barlow’s primary worry is that the scheme is rooted in the assumption that when women are given information about their partner’s history of violence, they’re going to leave the relationship as a result. 

‘Our research has found that for many legitimate reasons – concern for their safety of themselves and their children, having no access to money, and having no accommodation to flee to – that just doesn’t happen,’ she explains.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, NPCC lead for domestic abuse, tells Metro that it is difficult to track the true impact of the DVDS as police aren’t sure of how many of those who have received a disclosure have gone on to seek help as a result. However, she adds, the scheme does allow police the opportunity to ‘reach someone who may be at risk of domestic abuse.’

‘We know that perpetrators of abuse can be incredibly manipulative, often isolating a victim and making them believe they are to blame for their behaviour,’ Rolfe explains. ‘By informing someone of their partner’s past patterns of behaviour, this could be what they need to endorse their suspicion that they may be in an abusive relationship, which is the first step in getting help.’

‘He looked normal – but what does a narcissist abuser look like?’

When Estelle Keeber had a direct message from Jason*, who was part of the same Facebook hiking group as her, the two started chatting back and forth incessantly. 

‘It developed very quickly,’ the 42-year-old in Leicestershire tells Metro. ‘He was messaging me constantly – sometimes up to 20 times a day. It was quite nice to have the attention, but it was also really intense.’

When they talked, Jason was careful about not letting her see his surroundings, so Estelle could never pinpoint his location. He would also sometimes say things about himself that made her wonder if he was completely telling the truth. 

The pair decided to meet up in person two weeks after they had connected in October 2023. After friends warned her to be careful because he was often ‘too much’, Estelle decided to look Jason up online to check out his socials.

‘He looked normal – but what does a narcissist abuser look like?’ she says. ‘He had lots of posts of him with his daughters, some about his job, which later turned out to be fictional – but there was also a work page I looked at.’

While their first date was ‘wonderful’, Jason started talking about his ex-girlfriend on the subsequent dates, detailing how obsessed she’d been with him, tracking his car and causing loads of stress.

‘He was playing the victim. I felt sorry for him, he told a very good and convincing story,’ says Estelle.

Then she received a message from a ‘random’ person she didn’t know in January 2024, with a link to a list of court hearings, including Jason’s. His name was noted as having assaulted someone and controlling and coercive behaviour. The contact also connected her with Jason’s past girlfriends, who confirmed his behaviour.

‘It was shocking and alarming,’ remembers Estelle – and enough for her to call it quits on their relationship.

‘He was a little in disbelief when I said I knew he had been lying and that he had been caught out,’ she remembers. ‘I didn’t give him time to respond too much because I knew he would try and lie his way out of it. Straight after II removed and blocked him from everything I could.’

One of Jason’s exes had also suggested Estelle use Clare’s Law to verify their accusations, so once she was rid of him, she phoned the police to put in an application.

They visited her at home, making sure she and her house were secure, but then told Estelle she couldn’t use the service because she’d already broken up with Jason. 

‘I was devastated – especially as they had made it clear they needed to make me safe,’ Estelle says. ‘It made me even more worried because they wouldn’t tell me why I needed to be concerned. This man was still a risk to me.’

Mixed messages

Last year, Wiltshire Police were accused of a‘catastrophic service failure’, when two people endured preventable harm after Clare’s Law applications weren’t processed as they should have been. 

Between October 2021 and March 2022, over 10,000 (56% of) criminal background requests made under Clare’s Law were denied, according to data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council. 

In her research, Dr Barlow found other examples where police told applicants they couldn’t provide any information because they were no longer in a relationship. 

‘But violence and abuse can actually escalate when a relationship breaks down,’ she says. ‘Some police forces have given information even if they person is no longer in the relationship, whereas others haven’t. There’s inconsistency.’

A ‘lucky’ escape

After only two months of dating, Darcy* moved into a flat with her boyfriend in the spring of 2024, much to the dismay of her mum, Sarah*, whose gut told her that something was off. 

‘He kept using my daughter’s £50,000 car,’ she tells Metro. ‘He was evasive and arrogant. There was an entitlement about him.’

Although she was worried for her daughter, Sarah tried her best to keep her concerns to herself. Then, in July 2024, Darcy turned up at her mum’s house in tears, saying she’d broken things off. 

‘She found out that while she was on holiday, he’d put 1,600 miles on her car,’ Sarah remembers.

Darcy also let her mother listen to a voice note, where the boyfriend had warned her she didn’t have any clue about what he was capable of. Much to Sarah’s horror, Darcy ended up returning to her boyfriend, which sparked a ‘fall out’ between the two.  

Desperate to find out more about the man, Sarah put in an application to Clare’s Law and was told that Darcy would need to contact them herself, which she eventually did.

Meanwhile, Sarah undertook her own research and discovered that the boyfriend had been sentenced to prison for violent crimes. It took 85 days before the police disclosed to Darcy that he had previously served time in prison for violent offences against women. 

‘Darcy found out he had attacked a woman – putting her in hospital,’ says Sarah, who dreads to think what could have happened to her while the police dragged their feet. ‘He could have killed my daughter.’

What’s next for Clare’s Law

According to Ellie Butt from domestic abuse charity Refuge, the current effectiveness of the service comes down to a ‘postcode lottery’ which desperately needs to be addressed.

‘The application of Clare’s Law remains patchy due to inconsistency in police implementation, including long waiting times and declined applications,’ she tells Metro. ‘The devastating consequences of this cannot be understated.’

Meanwhile, Dr Barlow adds that it’s vital more support is given to anyone utilising the scheme. While she understands that the police need to be the ones who disclose information, domestic abuse services should be funded to deliver support to people who have made a Clare’s Law application. 

However, NPCC Louise Rolfe believes that since the introduction of Clare’s Law, the police’s understanding of domestic abuse has ‘drastically improved’, contributing to new statutory guidance that encourages forces to embed a support service, such as an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor or social worker, during the disclosure process. 

”She is hopeful that the scheme will see ‘more people become aware of the support available to them and use this opportunity as a preventative tool to minimise the horrendous harm of domestic abuse,’ she says.

‘While we still have work to do, officers are much better equipped to understand the complex nature of domestic abuse and how to better support and empower a victim to safety.’