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Wales: PC who ignored domestic violence "resigns"

01 November 1998

PC Paul Rolley was "required to resign" and PC Brian Bedford was fined £1000 for failing to help a woman who reported to them that her husband had attacked her. The woman approached the Police Complaints Authority to protest about the attitude of the two constables, who had dismissed her pleas for help. In two and a half years of marriage the woman had been attacked eleven times by her husband and had required hospital treatment 7 times as a result. It was only on one of the occasions on which she was hospitalised that the police finally arrested her husband, who was jailed for 4 years, having pleaded guilty to 5 charges of causing grievous bodily harm and 6 of causing actual bodily harm. Tony Burden, the Chief Constable of South Wales, upheld the case brought against the two constables at a disciplinary hearing. PC Rolley is likely to appeal against the decision.

Because crimes of domestic violence are not categorised as such, with different police forces having different ways of categorising crimes of domestic violence, it is extremely difficult to calculate the number of incidents which take place each year. According to a spokeswoman for the Research Centre for Violence at Leeds Metropolitan University, domestic violence constitutes 25-30% of all violence against the person assaults. However, it is estimated that only 20% of incidences of domestic violence are ever reported to the police. Moreover, this is held to be a generous estimate. It underscores the imperative for the police to take seriously and to investigate every report of domestic violence which is made to them.

Independent 26.11.98, Guardian 26.11.98