Lessons not learned after Georgia Barter driven to suicide by abuse, says her mother

The family of a woman judged to have been unlawfully killed by her partner after she took her own life following years of domestic abuse has said “lessons have still not been learnt” after the government indicated it would not make changes to how officers use the police national database.

An inquest earlier this year found that Georgia Barter, 32, experienced years of abuse at the hands of Thomas Bignell.

The inquest, in Walthamstow, London, heard that even though Bignell was known to at least four police forces, officers were not always able to access information about previous reports or arrests on the police national database (PND) when they were called out to attend to incidents involving Barter.

When he was arrested in relation to alleged assaults on her, the inquest heard that officers did not appear to have either the capacity or the authorisation to check the database.

The hearing was told that the Metropolitan police and Essex police received multiple reports about Bignell’s alleged abuse of Barter, including a report from a member of the public who told Essex police that Bignell had threatened to kill her.

Bignell was arrested in 2012 after Surrey police received reports that he had hit and kicked Barter at a hotel. He was not charged in relation to the alleged assault.

Inquests have a different burden of proof to criminal courts, finding on the balance of probabilities, rather than the criminal threshold of beyond reasonable doubt.

There is no criminal due process and nobody is convicted or acquitted. Bignell has not been charged with or convicted of any offences in criminal court in relation to his alleged violence towards Georgia or her death.

In her report to the Home Office, Dr Shirley Radcliffe, an assistant coroner for east London, said: “There is difficulty for frontline officers in police forces across the country to easily access the police national database to check on individuals who are suspected of domestic abuse.

“They are unable to easily identify if the individual has a history of reported domestic abuse in areas outside that forces’ borders. This would allow police to be more proactive in their dealings with victims of domestic violence.”

In a response to the coroner, shared with Barter’s family, the policing and crime minister Sarah Jones appeared to rule out making any changes to the way the PND was operated.

“Data from PND is provided to frontline officers by designated and specially trained staff in each police force. These account for [approximately] 12,000 licences,” she wrote.

“The Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) work and pro-actively engage with police forces to ensure that their allocation of licences is managed effectively and provides PND access to key areas of operational policing,” she added.

“The PND went live in 2011 and receives regular technical upgrades. The Home Office has a current programme designed to alleviate some of the current legacy challenges and to stabilise this critical national infrastructure application prior to any wider transformation of police intelligence.”