Gemma Cowey

The man guilty of murdering one of my constituents, Gemma Cowey, was sentenced to 23 years in prison last week for his horrific crime.The murder of Gemma was extremely distressing and my thoughts remain with her family.

I just wanted to let you all know that the excellent local domestic abuse charity Leeway has launched a new live chat service on its website, which will provide advice and support to those experiencing domestic abuse. The service has been funded by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk.

If you feel you need the support offered by Leeway, they can be contacted on their helpline 0300 561 0077 and their live chat service can be accessed on www.leewaysupport.org.

More broadly, I have long supported the necessary improvements to our criminal justice system which will help people in Norwich and across the country who face domestic abuse, particularly since the earlier, appalling, local murder of Kerri McAuley.

There is a major Domestic Abuse Bill working its way through Parliament right now, showing this action. The Government is significantly strengthening our laws and introducing new tools to protect victims. This includes the criminalisation of forced marriage, new stalking offences, an offence for failing to protect a girl from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), lifelong anonymity for victims of forced marriage and FGM, a mandatory reporting duty on FGM, the national roll-out of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (also known as ‘Clare’s Law’), making Domestic Homicide Reviews mandatory and a new offence of domestic abuse covering controlling and coercive behaviour.