A domestic violence survivor who was punched, threatened with a knife and had her front door kicked in by her former partner is “living in terror” because he has still not been fitted with a tracking tag, weeks after his release from prison.
Michelle, 38, who now lives in a static caravan with her four children, said relatives were sleeping on her floor in case the man tried to attack again. He had been recalled to prison on several occasions before for breaching his probation conditions.
“The police and probation know that he is a threat to me and has breached the terms of his probation before. It is as if they are waiting for something really bad to happen to me or my children before they help,” she said.
Michelle is among hundreds of domestic violence survivors demanding to know why tags are not being fitted on offenders as they leave prison. Instead, the private-sector firm Serco is being contracted to fit them after they have been released.
“They should be tagged as soon as they come out,” Michelle said. “Who knows where violent people are going to go and what they are going to do? Tags should be fitted in prison before they walk out the door.”
Michelle’s former partner breached his probation and was recalled to prison twice. Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian
Nearly half of offenders are not tagged “promptly” on release, and in one in 10 cases a device is fitted up to five months later, according to a report released on Thursday by the chief inspectors for probation and prisons.
The prison officers’ union, POA, has written to the justice secretary, Alex Norris, suggesting members should be trained to fit tags in prison.
Michelle said she was first punched in the face by her former partner, a crack cocaine user and the father of her three-year-old boy, in early 2024. She called the police, and he was arrested and bailed.
The following day, he returned to her then five-bedroom, privately rented home, kicked in the door and threatened her with a knife, she said. “My 16-year-old son had to intervene to drag him off me after he held me down by my hair and waved a knife around. My ex-partner was convinced I had another man in my bedroom,” she said.
He was convicted of two counts of assault by beating and one count of affray, and sentenced to 38 months in November 2024. On release in February 2025, he was ordered to stay away from Michelle’s home and the town where she lives.
He breached the terms of his probation in July 2025 and April and August this year: photos he and his friends uploaded showed him at parties and pubs in towns from which he was barred.
Michelle reported two of these breaches, resulting in the man being recalled to prison for 56 days on both occasions. On 15 October, he was released, with Michelle’s police liaison officer reassuring her that a GPS tag would be fitted to keep track of his movements.
But no tag has been fitted, leaving Michelle “living in terror” that he could attack her home, her now 18-year-old son, or attempt to abduct the three-year-old.
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Michelle said she was forced to leave her five-bedroom rented house and move into a caravan, following council advice.
“The police know that he has breached the terms of his probation before, they know that he is violent. It is really unfair that he can be released straight into the local area and his movements are not monitored. We have had to completely change our lives. I hardly let my children out and I am worried that he could attack at night,” she said.
Vikki Slade, the Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, raised Michelle’s case in parliament on Monday, demanding to know why domestic violence survivors with children were not being given more protection. “The fact that we are still releasing people without a tag from prisons is utterly crazy,” she said.
The watchdog’s report released this week disclosed that Serco, the tagging contractor, had been deemed to have met its performance targets by attempting to fit the devices, rather than actually fitting them and ensuring they worked.
It said that one of the main reasons for tags not being fitted was that the offender was not at an agreed address when contractors arrived. This accounted for a third of the 5,000 criminals in the community without tags.
In a letter to Norris this month, Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the POA, proposed that the government train prison officers to fit and activate electronic tags before prisoners are freed.
“Given the documented performance issues, the importance of public protection and the availability of an experienced public sector workforce, there is a compelling case for a formal assessment of insourcing,” he wrote.
The Ministry of Justice said: “We inherited a justice system in crisis after a decade of underinvestment but are taking the tough decisions needed to fix it. This includes the biggest ever expansion of electronic monitoring and tagging more offenders before they leave the prison gates.”
A Serco spokesperson said the firm attempted to fit an electronic monitoring device to every person required to wear one. “Where it is not possible to fit a device, or where the person breaches the conditions of their release, the individual is reported to the relevant authorities, who are responsible for considering and taking any further action,” they said.
