How many more like Caroline are out there?

Court case's eerie similarities show domestic violence is ever-present

- JOSEPH TIMAN

7

WE WERE sat next to each other for 90 minutes, both waiting outside a courtroom but for very different reasons.

He was there to defend himself against allegations of domestic violence. I was there to report on how the police are using new powers to prevent it, with one of the first Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in the country set to be issued in the court that day.

Both cases would be heard in courtroom five. It's where domestic violence cases are dealt with at Manchester Magistrates' Court.

But because domestic violence is so prevalent, there was a long queue of cases to get through. As we both waited to be called in by court staff, his phone rang and he told the person on the other end of the line where he was, assuring her that he's 'not in trouble! His nonchalant attitude made me think of David Liptrot, who brazenly confessed at a pub in Wigan last year that he had killed Caroline Gore the previous night, before singing Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline and snorting cocaine. Earlier that month, Liptrot was up in court for breaching a restraining order against Caroline, but was spared jail, just weeks before he brutally stabbed her to death.

Over the last few months, the Manchester Evening News has been campaigning for a mandatory minimum prison sentence for breaches of protective orders, like the one Liptrot repeatedly ignored and was allowed to get away with. That's why I was in court.