EXCLUSIVE: The daughter of Clare Wood speaks out about the life-saving law in her mum's memory
Maddy Wood was just 10-years-old when Clare Wood was murdered by her ex-boyfriend
Last updated 22nd Feb 2024
In 2009, 36-year-old Clare Wood was brutally murdered by her violent ex-boyfriend.
She'd met George Appleton on Facebook but after 10 months decided to end the relationship after finding out he'd been having a number of affairs with women he'd met online.
Four months later, after a prolonged period of harassment, threats and abuse, Clare was found dead at her home in Salford.
She'd been strangled and set on fire by the 40-year-old who then took his own life, his body found six days later in a derelict pub.
Following Clare's death a number of failings were recorded by police and other agencies that should have protected her.
It was also revealed Appleton had a history of violence, something which prompted Clare's dad Michael Brown, together with Radio Station Key 103 (now Hits Radio) to launch a campaign, giving people the right to ask police about a partner's past.
Clare's daughter Madeleine, or Maddy as she's known, was 10-years-old at the time of her murder. She's been speaking exclusively to Michelle Livesey, the reporter who led the Clare's Law campaign:
"He was always there" she remembers. "He never wasn't there, which in hindsight makes a lot of sense.
"My mum was always singing around the house, which I loved. She'd sing non-stop all the time and I used to say 'mum, you should be on the X Factor', and she'd just laugh at me. She was creative, she loved art. That's where I get it from, I'm now a designer and I love art."
Maddy recalls being introduced to George Appleton.
"She seemed really happy that she'd met someone. She told me about George, that she'd met him online and everything seemed fine. I was nine at the time and he was always there. We'd go out on trips together, but I do remember when things started to turn volatile. They went from being happy to arguing all the time."
On February 2nd 2009 Clare's body was found at her home in Salford following a fire. Maddy remembers being taken out of class at school and into the headteacher's office where her dad was waiting for her.
"I didn't really understand what had happened. The police later asked me questions about George and obviously there were fears he would try and contact me, so I went to stay with my grandad. It was a few years later when I really started to understand.
"I spent a lot of my teenage years angry. How do you process all that emotion. I struggled at uni. I just felt like something was missing. At my graduation, seeing all my friends hugging their mums, I just felt a sense of loss, like the one person I wanted to share it with wasn't there'.
Maddy was aware of the Clare's Law campaign after seeing her grandad in the media, doing interviews and going to Downing Street.
"He asked me to write a poem about how I was feeling so that he could hand it in to politicians in Parliament. That's when I realised this could really make a difference. This could actually bring about change. My mum thought George Appleton had previous convictions for driving offences, not kidnapping a woman at knifepoint. There's no way she would have put herself or me in that situation if she'd known. If Clare's Law had been in place for her she would have found out and she would have left'.
In 2014, as a result of the campaign, the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme - known as 'Clare's Law' - was rolled out across the country.
"It's bitter sweet for me", Maddy says. "On the one hand you know that person's never coming back, no matter how many people are saved, that person is never coming back. But on the other hand there are less people like me, daughters without mums, dads without daughters, and that's my mum's legacy."
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as “Clare’s Law” enables the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s or ex-partner’s previous abusive or violent offending.
Making a Clare's law application
You can make your own Clare's Law application by contacting your local police force.
Information on their website will be listed under "Clare's Law" or the "Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme".