Police chief apologises after women put at risk from Clare’s Law failures

A chief constable has apologised after a police staff member’s failures to undertake Clare’s Law applications properly left women at risk of violence, including one woman who was the victim of attempted murder.

Gavin Hudson was supposed to examine Clare’s Law requests – a system designed to allow people to find out whether a partner has a history of violence or domestic abuse – but failed to do his job properly.

His misconduct led to Wiltshire Police reviewing 3,778 Clare’s Law applications and identifying 33 failures.

Hudson was found guilty of gross misconduct by a police disciplinary panel and would have been sacked had he not already resigned.

Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper apologised for the failures, and revealed two previous referrals had been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) about Hudson.

“We have failed in our primary duty to protect people from harm, and I cannot overemphasise the depth of the apology I issued when we first found out about these critical service failures,” she said.

“The critical service failures, including those of Gavin Hudson, resulted in at least three women being subsequently harmed. Had we provided them with the right information, this might have been prevented.

“Of the 3,778 reviews, we identified 33 failures – as a result of this hearing, we now know that three women were harmed, 17 service failures – where we should have disclosed and didn’t or where inadequate research was done – and 14 administrative failures.

“Gavin Hudson’s dereliction of duty has no doubt undermined the trust and confidence our communities have in our safeguarding processes, and I understand that.

“We have changed our leadership in this area of our organisation and now have more intrusive supervision of this process.

“We will ensure ongoing organisational improvements will be made as a result of the learning from these serious failures.”

Hudson, 40, worked as a domestic violence disclosure scheme (DVDS) researcher before he was suspended in September 2023 and quitting the following July.

He had previously been based in the control room and contact centre before moving to a research role with a domestic abuse support team in 2015.

The force said after referrals were made about him in 2019 and 2020 he received management advice, and an audit of his work was undertaken.

“This was not robust enough to ensure Gavin Hudson performed his duties thoroughly and to the standard we expected,” the chief constable said.

“The IOPC has concluded that poor oversight and inconsistent management may have contributed to these failures, and we fully accept this.”

Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson added: “I remain deeply troubled by the events that led to the gross misconduct outcome involving police staff member Gavin Hudson.

“To the women affected – and to the wider public – I want to say: I am sorry. You were failed.

“The systems meant to protect you broke down and individuals did not do their duty to their fullest. That must never happen again.

“This hearing has revealed a serious breach of public trust.”

The police watchdog began investigating Hudson following a referral from Wiltshire Police in September 2023.

Investigators found Hudson inadequately researched requests for information on potential abusers, telling some applicants there was nothing on file about their partners without checking any police systems.

Some women who were denied access to information that would have revealed their partners had abusive pasts went on to suffer emotional abuse and violence.

On one occasion an application made in July 2022 on a woman’s behalf revealed her partner had a violent and sexual offender register warning marker against his name.

Hudson failed to research the information and the man went on to stab the woman several times the following year. He was jailed for attempted murder.

In another application from 2022, Hudson failed to identify the subject’s police record contained details of a domestic assault on a previous partner. He closed the application without any further action.

The police watchdog also uncovered instances where Hudson sent out no further action letters to applicants without asking his supervisor to review the applications.

The investigation further found Hudson skipped through online training courses designed to prepare him for his domestic abuse research position.

Some of the mandatory courses he “completed” in a matter of seconds and IOPC investigators concluded it was not feasible for him to have fully digested important information.

Hudson was barred from policing after a panel upheld seven allegations against him, including six for gross misconduct.

IOPC director Derrick Campbell said: “Hudson did not follow Home Office guidance and left several women unaware of the potential danger their partners presented to them.

“His dereliction of duty had real consequences as some of the women later suffered domestic abuse.

“We’ve listened to the victims to hear their stories and understand how they were affected.

“Many of them said they would have ended their relationships had the information on their partners been disclosed to them.

“Hudson’s actions will have undermined public confidence in the effectiveness of Wiltshire Police’s DVDS processes.

“However, we acknowledge that on discovering process failures, the force conducted a thorough review of more than 3,000 DVDS applications for reassurance and dip-sampled many cases dealt with by Hudson.”

Last year marked 10 years since Clare’s Law was passed and more applications are being made to police forces than ever before.

For the year ending March 2024, there were 58,612 applications in England and Wales. By comparison, in 2018-19 there were 13,748.