Former police staff member whose safeguarding failures put women at risk guilty of gross misconduct

Following a disciplinary hearing held on Wednesday (October 8), seven allegations were upheld against Gavin Hudson – with six findings of gross misconduct. He will now be barred from working in a policing organisation again.

Hudson, who worked as a Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), known as Clare’s Law, researcher, was suspended from the force in September 2023 and resigned in July 2024.

Between September 2023 and April 2024 the force referred a total of ten Clare’s Law applications, plus three linked complaints, to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for scrutiny.

Clare’s Law allows people to ask police if a partner or former partner has a history of violence or abuse and is designed to protect potentially vulnerable people.

“However, we found 40-year-old Hudson inadequately researched requests for information on potential abusers, telling some applicants there was nothing on file about their partners without checking any police systems,” the IOPC said.

“Some women denied access to information, that would have revealed their partners had abusive pasts, went on to suffer emotional abuse and violence.”

After the initial failures of Hudson were identified, the IOPC “urgently reviewed” 3,778 Clare’s Law applications submitted between 2015-2023.

This review, which concluded within eight months, covered the entire period Hudson worked within the domestic abuse command.

A total of 33 failures were identified as part of this review. Had these not happened, further offending may have been prevented, the IOPC said.

These include failing to correctly identify an individual who had violence warning markers against his name in the force system and, therefore, not appropriately disclosing information to the applicant. The offender subsequently stabbed his partner causing serious injuries and was later convicted of attempted murder in 2024. This allegation against Hudson was upheld.

A separate failure involved not identifying previous convictions for domestic assault against the partner of a woman who had applied for information under the scheme, despite the man having previously served a prison term for assault. The applicant was later abused by her partner. This misconduct allegation was not upheld against Hudson.

Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper said: “We have failed in our primary duty to protect people from harm, and I cannot overemphasise the depth of the apology I issued when we first found out about these critical service failures.

“The critical service failures, including those of Gavin Hudson, resulted in at least three women being subsequently harmed. Had we provided them with the right information, this might have been prevented.

“Between October 2023 and May last year, a dedicated team of Wiltshire Police officers and staff systematically reviewed every single Clare’s Law application made to us during the period Gavin Hudson and others worked in this area of business – the review covered applications made from April 2015 to August 2023.

“Of the 3,778 reviews, we identified 33 failures – as a result of this hearing, we now know that three women were harmed, 17 service failures – where we should have disclosed and didn’t or where inadequate research was done, and 14 administrative failures.

“Gavin Hudson’s dereliction of duty has no doubt undermined the trust and confidence our communities have in our safeguarding processes, and I understand that.

“We have changed our leadership in this area of our organisation and now have more intrusive supervision of this process.

“We will ensure ongoing organisational improvements will be made as a result of the learning from these serious failures.”

Wiltshire Police said it has since strengthened the oversight and leadership of the Domestic Abuse Safeguarding Team – a dedicated detective inspector now has responsibility for managing the team.

A new policy for overseeing Clare’s Law applications has been introduced – with a clear escalation process to ensure each decision is ratified by another person

The force has also appointed more Clare’s Law specialists to the team, and created more robust training to those within this command, and introduced a programme of mentoring for all new joiners with a bespoke input from a specialist member of the team

“We’ve also developed our multi-agency approach to safeguarding victims of domestic abuse in addition to focusing on perpetrators,” the force said. “We are now working closer than ever before with our partner agencies and improved how we share information between organisations

“As a result of our organisational learning from this failure, we have helped inform the College of Policing Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme Principles, which have now formed part of our improved approach to Clare’s Law applications

“We are ensuring that everyone within our organisation understands their role in tackling domestic abuse – this has included us dedicating the month of October to an internal domestic abuse awareness raising campaign.”

Ms Roper said following the referrals made to the IOPC in both 2019 and 2020, Hudson was given management advice, and an audit of his work was undertaken.

“This was not robust enough to ensure Gavin Hudson performed his duties thoroughly and to the standard we expected,” she said. “The IOPC has concluded that poor oversight and inconsistent management may have contributed to these failures, and we fully accept this.

“We have significantly improved the rigour and scrutiny in this area of our business and, whilst it should not have taken such a critical service failure for us to make these improvements, I hope this goes some way to reassure the public that our service to them will be better.”

Ms Roper said to ensure continued oversight of the impact of this case, and assess any criminal investigation, a Gold Group continues to exist under Deputy Chief Constable Mark Cooper.

She added: “Once again, I am truly sorry this happened. It is crucial that people feel confident in coming forward and asking for this information.

“I hope the grip and governance now in place will foster the confidence you have in us to support you when you need us.”

IOPC Director Derrick Campbell, said: “Hudson did not follow Home Office guidance, and left several women unaware of the potential danger their partners presented to them.

“His dereliction of duty had real consequences as some of the women later suffered domestic abuse. We’ve listened to the victims to hear their stories and understand how they were affected. Many of them said they would have ended their relationships had the information on their partners been disclosed to them.

“Hudson’s actions will have undermined public confidence in the effectiveness of Wiltshire Police’s DVDS processes. However, we acknowledge that on discovering process failures, the force conducted a thorough review of more than 3,000 DVDS applications for reassurance and dip sampled many cases dealt with by Hudson.”

Hudson worked in Wiltshire Police’s Control Room and Contact Centre before moving to a research role with a domestic abuse support team in 2015.

The IOPC said its investigation revealed he skipped through online training courses designed to prepare him for his domestic abuse research position. Some of the mandatory courses he ‘completed’ in a matter of seconds and IOPC investigators concluded it was not feasible for him to have fully digested important information.

Wiltshire police and crime commissioner (PCC) Philip Wilkinson said: “I remain deeply troubled by the events that led to the gross misconduct outcome involving police staff member Gavin Hudson.

“As PCC, my duty is to represent the public and to hold policing to account. To the women affected – and to the wider public – I want to say: I am sorry. You were failed. The systems meant to protect you broke down and individuals did not do their duty to their fullest. That must never happen again.

“This hearing has revealed a serious breach of public trust.

“Gavin Hudson failed to carry out even the most basic checks while dealing with Clare’s Law applications. In some cases, he told applicants there was no information about their partners – without independently checking police systems at all.

“In one of the most distressing cases, a woman was stabbed multiple times after vital information about her partner’s history was missed. This was not a simple administrative mistake but one where a victim has been harmed as a result.”

He added: “I have been clear from the outset: lessons must be learned and accountability must follow from individual and organisational perspectives. The Hearing outcome reinforces this and I welcome the force’s commitment to increased and strengthened training, scrutiny and oversight in this critical area.

“Residents should be reassured that significant changes were immediately implemented, with stronger management and leadership within the team, enhanced training and more specialist staff, improved governance – ensuring there is a robust process of checks surrounding disclosure decisions – and ongoing mentoring by Clare’s Law experts.

“This case is a stark reminder of the need for rigorous training, supervision and a culture of accountability within policing. This is not about protecting an organisation’s reputation, it is about protecting people from harm and I appreciate the candour and accountability with which the chief constable has approached this.

“We must rebuild trust in Clare’s Law and the systems designed to safeguard the vulnerable. That starts with transparency and action.

“I have sought, and received, assurance from the chief constable that all necessary changes are being implemented. I will also continue to monitor progress closely to ensure victims are protected and failures like this are never repeated.”