Database call for violent partners

Women should be given the right to know whether their partner has a history of committing domestic abuse, and violent men who drive their partners to suicide could be charged with killing them, police said yesterday.

Recommendations made yesterday by senior officers will target Britain's estimated 25,000 serial domestic abusers who could be required to register on a police database similar to that under anti-paedophile schemes. It would give women the right to know whether they and their children are safe from aggressive men.

Alongside the proposals, which would need to be approved by Parliament, there would be a new offence of "liability for suicide" which could make it easier for prosecutors to secure successful convictions. It is hoped this would reduce the suicide rate - one in three women who kill themselves have been abused by their partner.

Police say it could help tackle so-called honour violence directed against Asian women in the UK who are two and a half times more likely to end their lives than white women. An "abatement to suicide" law has been operating in India for 25 years. Swedish women also have protection.

Natasha Reilly, 19, was regularly attacked by her boyfriend. She became depressed and twice attempted suicide and, after a final attack, was left with a black eye, bruises and a cut face. "He had beaten me up countless times and I had been a fool and forgiven him because I was so frightened," she said.

The review by the Association of Chief Police Officers was ordered by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith amid mounting concern that too little was being done to protect women from abusive partners and their families.

The report said the new laws would act as a "powerful deterrent" and that existing legislation was over-reliant on a single incident to establish proof when cases come to court. The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, welcomed the recommendations which include the power of judges to issue "go orders", preventing violent men visiting a woman's home for two weeks.

"Violence against women is never acceptable. Our biggest challenge is preventing it from happening and changing attitudes that condone it," he said.

Wiltshire Chief Constable Brian Moore accepted there could be opposition to another database containing personal details of abusers, some of whom may not have been convicted.

- INDEPENDENT