Obituary: Michael Brown, who campaigned for Clare’s Law to protect women

Michael Brown took an instant dislike to his daughter’s new boyfriend but he understood she was a grown woman who could make her own decisions.

What 36-year-old Clare could not do was make a fully informed choice about whether it was prudent to continue the relationship.

Unknown to her she was dating a violent offender who had a history of abusing his partners.

He would go on to stalk Clare, strangle the young mum and set her body on fire.

Consumed by guilt over his perceived inability to protect his daughter her father then focused his grief and energies into a campaign to prevent the same thing happening to others.

The result was the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, known as Clare’s Law, giving people the right to know of a partner’s history of violence – an initiative that has attracted global attention and been rolled out UK-wide, with pilot schemes in Australia and Canada.

The campaign saw him lobby politicians, appear on primetime television and radio and in countless newspaper and magazine articles. Clare’s Law even featured in a Coronation Street domestic violence storyline. But he didn’t consider himself anything special.

“I haven’t done any of this for plaudits,” he said. “But if I could have saved one other lassie or one other person from suffering then it will be worth it.”

Born in Aberdeen to civil servant William Brown and his wife Gladys, he was educated at the city’s St Joseph’s R C Primary and Ruthrieston Schools, leaving at 15 to join the RAF’s boy entrant scheme.

Over the next 14 years he worked as a cook, serving in Cyprus, Aden and across the UK including Northern Ireland. He also gained his parachute wings.

After leaving the RAF he spent more than 20 years at sea as a ship’s cook, mostly on North Sea supply vessels and latterly as chef manager on a diving support vessel.

Meanwhile, he married and had two daughters, Sam and Mandy.

After that relationship ended he married, Sheila, a divorcee from Yorkshire with two children, Clare and Adam. Brown moved to Yorkshire and adopted the children, treating them as his own.

When ill health ended his career at sea he worked as a catering team leader for a supermarket before moving to HM Prison Leeds in Armley as a catering officer, where he remained until retiring.

By 2009 he had already faced heartache with Sheila’s death, from ovarian cancer four years earlier, when he was robbed of his adopted daughter in the most horrific circumstances.

Months earlier Clare Wood had broken up with the man her father disapproved of – George Appleton – whom she had met online.

But her ex refused to leave her alone and Clare made repeated calls to police reporting that he had threatened to kill her and burn her house down, caused criminal damage, harassed and sexually assaulted her.

She had a panic alarm installed after reporting him for attempted rape.

Although he was arrested, his punishment was a fixed penalty for causing criminal damage and he remained free to pursue his prey.

On February 2, 2009, four months after she dumped him, Appleton strangled Clare in her Salford home and set her ablaze before going on the run.

He was found hanged in a derelict pub six days later.

It then emerged that he had previously been jailed for harassing another woman and breaching a restriction order. He was said to have kidnapped one ex-girlfriend at knifepoint and had trawled the internet for women.

Michael Brown was appalled that Appleton’s violent past had not been more openly known and started his campaign after discovering abusive partners could hide behind a loophole in Data Protection law.

The coroner at Clare’s inquest supported moves to give partners the right to know of a violent history and worked alongside Brown, the local MP Hazel Blears and radio journalist Michelle Livesey-Feingold to raise the issue.

Without those three women, Brown said, he would have been a “voice in the wilderness”. Despite his humility, he was a relentless campaigner – passionate tenacious and charismatic.

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, or Clare’s Law, came into force in England and Wales in 2014 as a guideline for police nationwide and will be enshrined into law as part of the Domestic Abuse Bill currently going through the UK parliament. The Disclosure Scheme for Domestic abuse was rolled out across Scotland in 2015 and a similar measure operates in Northern Ireland.

Brown was quietly delighted with the initiative’s success and took every opportunity to promote it and educate. He was patron of Endeavour, a domestic violence advocacy organisation in Bolton, and this year was honoured with a British Citizen Award at the Palace of Westminster and named an Everyday Hero in Aberdeen, where a plaque marks his achievements.

Fellow campaigners say his work has already saved hundreds of lives and believe his legacy will save thousands more.

He is survived by his two daughters and son, his partner Elizabeth, sister Carol and extended family.

ALISON SHAW

Obituary: Michael Brown, who campaigned for Clare’s Law to protect women

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