More than 75,000 have backed a Manchester Evening News campaign in memory of Caroline Gore calling for a change in the law.
The M.E.N. has been calling for the government to protect victims of domestic abuse by enforcing orders which are supposed to keep them safe. The campaign was launched one year after Caroline, 44, was brutally murdered by her abusive partner at her flat in Wigan.
David Liptrot, who is now serving 20 years behind bars, stabbed Caroline to death at Douglas House in October 2023, weeks after he was spared jail for breaching a restraining order again. Liptrot received a suspended sentence after breaching the order which prohibited him from contacting ‘vulnerable’ Caroline for a second time but walked free and killed her less than four weeks later.
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The M.E.N. is calling for a mandatory minimum prison sentence for those who breach protective orders like the one Liptrot got away with ignoring. A petition, which also calls for proper monitoring of these orders, has now been signed by more than 75,000 people.
It comes two months after the campaign was raised in Parliament. Leigh and Atherton MP Jo Platt, who has backed the M.E.N. campaign, raised Caroline’s story in the House of Commons and called for a debate on strengthening the law on protective orders.
Several Greater Manchester MPs have also backed the campaign, alongside Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, a number of domestic abuse charities and Wigan council which has launched a Domestic Abuse Related Death review into Caroline’s case. In November, Caroline’s daughter Megan also spoke out in support of the campaign echoing comments by sister Jo months earlier.
Later that month, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips told the M.E.N. that our campaign could lead to change. She was speaking ahead of the new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders being trialled in Greater Manchester with the first orders issued in Bury in December.
Unlike the existing Domestic Violence Protection Notices, this new type of order can be granted for any length of time and may include ‘positive requirements’ for perpetrators such as electronic monitoring or attendance at a behaviour change programme. The two-year pilot is now being rolled out in Wigan before takes effect across Greater Manchester as well as three London boroughs.
As of last week, seven people were subject to Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in Greater Manchester with officers having applied for an eight. In one case, a man was jailed for eight months after breaching the order by visiting a woman’s home on Boxing Day.