Police admit domestic abuse case mistakes

Two police forces have been criticised after a woman who fled her abusive husband was tracked down and stabbed.

Gail Hdili moved to Nottingham from South Yorkshire in December 2008 and contacted both forces about the move and fears her husband had found her.

Despite this, Mrs Hdili, then 40, was attacked by Adel Hdili in Nottingham in January 2009 and left blind in one eye.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said police had failed to take "crucial steps".

Support unit

IPCC Commissioner Amerdeep Somal said: "Mrs Hdili has been through a deeply traumatic experience, which has left her scarred for life. It is extremely fortunate this case did not have a more tragic outcome.

"Our investigation has thoroughly examined the actions taken by both forces and found crucial steps were not taken prior to and on the day of the attack.

"In particular, risk assessments were not completed, calls were not handled in line with the force's domestic violence policy and specially trained domestic violence officers were not utilised."

While Mrs Hdili had kept police fully informed, the IPCC found, Nottinghamshire Police had not passed information on to its domestic abuse support unit, meaning it was not given a high enough priority.

Court case

When told by Mrs Hdili that her husband found her, Nottinghamshire Police did not act immediately and South Yorkshire Police, despite also being called by Adel Hdili, did not flag the case up or pass information to the Nottinghamshire force.

Both forces accepted the findings of the IPCC report with several members of staff being given advice and the South Yorkshire officer who took Adel Hdili's call pleading guilty at a misconduct hearing.

Nottinghamshire Police said it had made a domestic violence database available to all staff and put new command and control systems in place to earlier identify vulnerable people.

Tunisian Adel Hdili, then 31, admitted wounding in July 2009 and was sentenced to a nine- year prison term to be followed by deportation.