Coronation Street: What is Clare’s Law?

At the end of Friday’s (April 3) episode, Geoff Metcalfe (played by Ian Bartholomew) had his hand pressed against the door, determined not to let his wife Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King) leave for her grandson Zeedan’s (Qasim Akhtar) wedding in Spain. She continued to insist she was going and left the house to venture over to granddaughter Alya’s (Sair Khan) flat. However, this was just the start of Geoff once again pulling the wool over Yasmeen’s eyes to get her to stay with him at home and miss the ceremony.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Coronation Street.

As Yasmeen sat in Alya’s living room, her phone continued to alert her to someone was messaging her.
For a while, she ignored her phone until messages were coming in every few seconds and she decided to look.
There were a total of 42 messages from Geoff, all begging her to come back, saying he loved her and then at the end, a message which said she would be the one to blame if he died after he faked a suspected heart attack the day before.
Concerned for his welfare, Yasmeen went back to the house to check on him with Alya there for support.
They found a broken photo frame of the couple and spots of blood on the glass.
Scared he might have seriously hurt himself, she decided to not go to the wedding after all and instead waited for him to come home.
A furious and frustrated Alya told her grandmother he would just walk back in with a small scratch and pretend as if nothing has happened but she refused to leave.
Unfortunately for Yasmeen, Alya knew exactly what was going to happen.

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Geoff still had a camera set up in the living room, so as Alya tried to persuade Yasmeen to leave with her, he was sipping a pint in a bar while watching everything happening on his phone.
Not too long after, Geoff returned to the house where he and Yasmeen embraced as she was relieved he was alright.
But Alya was right as it was just a scratch where he had cut his finger on the glass, so she was going to miss Zeedan’s wedding for no reason at all.
At the end of the episode, Yasmeen said she would sleep in the spare room, which he reluctantly agreed to before going out to get dinner for the pair of them.
But as soon as he stepped out, Yasmeen got her phone and called the number Alya had added to her contacts list for the police, asking for information on Geoff’s past through Clare’s Law.

What is Clare’s Law?

Clare’s Law is a scheme where people can find out from the police if their partner is on their records for having a history of domestic violence.
Concerned third parties can also request this information from police and other agencies including social services.
Whoever has been asked for the details will then have to decide if the information is “necessary, lawful and proportionate” to protect someone who feels they are in danger because of their partner.
They can also decide not to give out the details if the person in question doesn’t have a criminal record for domestic abuse or if the information doesn’t reveal a “pressing need for disclosure”.

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Clare’s Law was first introduced back in 2014 to coincide with International Women’s Day.
Prior to the law being passed, there were pilot schemes in Greater Manchester, Wiltshire, Gwent and Nottinghamshire.
The scheme can be used for both men and women who want to know information about a partner’s potential history of domestic violence.
The law came about after a murder which might have been prevented if the scheme had already been in place.

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Clare’s Law is named after Clare Woods who was killed at home in 2009 but her ex-boyfriend George Appleton who was found dead six days later.
Months before the incident, Clare had made several complaints to the police about Appleton and even though she had told her dad he had a criminal record, she said it was only for motoring offences.
However, this was not the case as it was revealed he had a history of violence against women.
He was previously sent to prison for harassing a woman as well as breaching a restraining order against another of his ex-girlfriends.
Coronation Street continues tomorrow, Wednesday, April 8, at 7.30pm on ITV.

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