Police received multiple reports about domestic abuse before woman was stabbed by boyfriend, watchdog says
Independent Office for Police Conduct probing force’s contact with beautician who was ‘bullied and degraded’ by partner
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Police received a string of domestic abuse reports about a man who later beat and stabbed his girlfriend, investigators have revealed.
Derbyshire Constabulary is being probed by the police watchdog over its handling of the case, which eventually saw Aaron Booth attack his partner with a kitchen knife after a campaign of bullying behaviour.
Booth was jailed for 14 years in October after he broke into Zahra Rechelle’s home in Glossop, beat her nearly unconscious and knifed her five times in front of police officers who had responded to the victim’s frantic 999 call.
A court was told that during their relationship Booth would “bully and degrade [Ms Rechelle] by spitting, flicking cigarettes or throwing household items at her, as well as calling her names”.
Now the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has revealed police were told several times before the attack of abusive incidents relating to the couple, and said it was reviewing officers’ previous contact with the victim.
In a statement on Tuesday, it said: “The IOPC is now investigating how Derbyshire police handled a number of incidents of domestic abuse involving [Ms Rechelle] and Booth, which were reported to them between September 2018 and the night of the stabbing [in February 2019].”
Derrick Campbell, a regional IOPC director, added: “We will be considering the force’s response to incidents reported to them prior to the stabbing and whether there is any learning that can be identified.
“We have made initial contact with the woman concerned to explain our role and we will be keeping her regularly updated as our enquiries progress.”
The Independent has contacted Derbyshire Constabulary for comment.
The force referred itself to the IOPC over the case this month.
It comes months after a former police officer who accused teenager Shana Grice of wasting his time with reports of domestic violence before she was killed was found guilty of misconduct.
In July, an inquest found that failures by police and probation workers left a convicted murderer free to kill a second partner, who had warned authorities she feared for her life.
And in August, The Independent reported how 33-year-old Laura Stuart was killed by her ex-boyfriend despite reporting his abusive behaviour to police 18 times.
Between 2015 and 2017, 55 women were killed by men they had previously reported to police, a Freedom of Information request by Vice found.