Blair welcomes national report on police-perpetrated violence against women and girls

Alliance MLA John Blair has welcomed the publication of the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing review of themes, learnings and recommendations on police-perpetrated violence against women and girls (VAWG).

John Blair PSNI Violence Against Women and Girls

 

 

The review has been published as part of a national police framework to improve the response to violence against women and girls. Police forces were asked to conduct an urgent review of sexual misconduct, domestic abuse and other VAWG-related offences against officers and staff and to share their learning with the NPCC and College of Policing. The review includes recommendations for improving the handling of police-perpetrated violence against women and girls.

“I welcome this progress, as well as other more recent commitments from the PSNI to tackle VAWG, but I want to hear more from the police about what wide-ranging reforms they are going to introduce to pursue offenders who commit so called ‘lower level’ sexual offending, when we know they are often a precursor to more serious crimes against women,” said Mr Blair, a member of the Policing Board.

“Perpetrators don’t go out and kill without any prior indication they are a danger to women and girls, which was the case with Sarah Everard’s murderer and similarly the killer of Libby Squires, who was known to have indecently exposed himself in a pattern of abuse which escalated to murder. 

“As far as they can, the police must ensure a serving police officer never rapes and murders a woman again.”