A woman was brutally attacked in her own home after her abusive ex-partner evaded custody and breached his restraining order. Angela Craddock, from Warrington, died in April 2018 after being beaten by William Smart, despite the fact he was on recall for breaching his licence conditions.
At a recent inquest hearing, Cheshire's senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish heard how Smart fatally assaulted 40-year-old Ms Craddock after being released from prison, where he was detained for assaulting his victim and carrying a knife. Despite being given a restraining order for a year, Smart continued to hound his ex, Cheshire Live reports, and called her a total of 160 times in the 39 days after his conviction.
Ms Devonish, who has released a report to prevent future deaths, raised concerns that the correct staff were not made aware of Smart's restraining order. In the document, addressed to HMP Altcourse, Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service, the coroner highlighted areas that could be addressed to prevent similar deaths taking place.
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She said: "Details of the Restraining Order were sent to HMP Altcourse and on receipt a paper copy of the conditions were placed in an envelope to be delivered to the Public Protection Department. This was never received so the relevant staff were not aware of the Restraining Order.
"Consequently, upon release on licence the community rehabilitation service were unaware of the breaches of the Restraining Order and were unable to include this information in the Offender Assessment System's risk assessment or the prison recall report and review, ultimately sent on to the police for the enforcement of the recall notice."
Coroner Devonish heard how Smart had initially been released from HMP Altcourse on April 3, with orders to contact the local community rehabilitation team. When he failed to present himself to authorities, the National Offender Management Service was notified and the police were informed. However, due to a lack of resources, no patrol was deployed to bring Smart into custody.
Coroner Devonish has given the authorities 56 days to detail changes that they have made in order to prevent future deaths. But despite initial fears, the inquest found that Smart was solely responsible for Ms Craddock's death, with authorities not to blame for the fatal attack.
Following the inquest, a spokesman for Cheshire Police said: "Our thoughts are with Angela's family at this time. We recognise the finding of the coroner’s court and will review their findings for any further learning.
"Violence against women and girls is a priority for the force and we have put a number of safeguarding plans in place for vulnerable women and men who are subjected to domestic abuse, whatever form that takes.
"Our focus on bringing offenders to justice and protecting the public is in our utmost thoughts when we are faced with domestic abuse and understand the impact it has on families who are affected. We work with partners to support and protect."
Cheshire Live contacted the Ministry of Justice for comment.
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