Background Violent offender orders
34.Part 7 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 provides for violent offender orders (“VOO”), which are civil preventative orders that can be made by the courts on application from the police to impose restrictions on offenders convicted of specified violent offences who pose a risk of serious violent harm to the public in the UK. A VOO may contain any restriction the court considers necessary for protecting the public from serious violent harm, for example, by prohibiting an offender’s access to certain places, premises, events or people to whom they pose the highest risk. VOOs may also be made in relation to offenders with convictions for an offence committed overseas which would have been a specified offence had the act giving rise to the conviction been done in the United Kingdom.
35.The offences on the basis of which a VOO may be sought do not currently include murder committed overseas. Murder was not originally included on the list of specified offences, because an individual convicted in the UK would be subject to licence conditions for life, making a VOO unnecessary. To amend the list of offences in respect of which a VOO may be sought, primary legislation is required.
36.In a report into the circumstances of the death of Maria Stubbings, who was murdered by her ex-partner, Marc Chivers, the Independent Police Complaints Commission highlighted that gaps in the law in respect of the supervision of offenders convicted overseas presents a significant risk to public safety.(15)