Police policy changes after man murders girlfriend

Sussex Police committed to changing domestic abuse policies and officer training after a man known to officers murdered his girlfriend in 2023, a watchdog has said.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) made recommendations to the force after Ryan Evans, from Crawley, was convicted of murdering his girlfriend Holly Sanchez in 2023.

Evans, jailed for 21 years in 2024, was on police bail with a condition not to contact Sanchez at the time of the murder.

Sussex Police said: "We have improved our risk assessment process, which now identifies risk quicker, leading to earlier arrests, the right referrals and better support for victims."

"We remain committed to safeguarding victims and providing them with information to keep them safe," a spokesperson said.

The IOPC said police contacted Sanchez "frequently in the months before her death" and had graded the risk to her as "medium" despite Evans being "a high-risk serial perpetrator of domestic abuse".

They had been together for three months, according to the IOPC.

The trial heard Evans' coercive and abusive behaviour had escalated, resulting in Sanchez suffering multiple injuries.

According to the IOPC, the force was reviewing questions for call handlers to ask to try to recognise serial domestic abuse suspects sooner and identify any further vulnerabilities for victims.

Officers are also exploring a change to safeguarding paperwork after being told to update policies to reflect increased risk to victims when suspects are known perpetrators or if there are multiple incidents within a short period.

Sussex Police is introducing a new domestic abuse risk assessment that would reflect that the risk to a victim could increase if they had additional vulnerabilities.

Work has started to amend the multi-agency response process for when there are three or more incidents within six months, the IOPC said.

The IOPC concluded after its investigation that there was no indication that a police staff member committed a criminal offence or that disciplinary proceedings were required.

The watchdog also recommended the Home Office should change its statutory guidance for the domestic violence disclosure scheme, known as Clare's Law, to advise forces to prioritise cases with more vulnerable victims or serial abusers.

According to the IOPC, the government responded to say it was working to "better understand the barriers in applying the statutory guidance consistently across forces".

The government also said it would "give specific consideration to whether and how we implement this recommendation" as part of a wider review of the scheme.

The Home Office was contacted for comment.

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