Sir John Hayes

I thank Mr Speaker and his Deputies for allowing me time for this debate. G. K. Chesterton said that “cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kind of sin”, and cruelty comes in many forms, but when it begins with cruelty to animals, which then becomes cruelty to people, it becomes barbaric. “Barbarism” is the word that came to my mind when I was first approached by my constituent Annette Bramley, who is in the Gallery this evening. She described to me the way that her beloved daughter, Holly, was murdered. “Courage” is another word that occurs to me, for Annette’s courage, which has led us here today in her ceaseless campaign to honour Holly by ensuring that future tragedies of that kind do not occur, is notable and admirable. It inspires me and has inspired many others. Annette’s grief at the loss of her daughter is compounded by the appalling way that her daughter was killed by the worthless, wicked husband who murdered her. It came after years of cruelty towards her pets. Holly was just 26 years of age when she died in 2023, but she and her pets had been subjected to years of cruelty before that, involving both physical cruelty to those animals, and the coercive control associated with that towards Holly. The harm that her husband inflicted on animals served to frighten, torture, and control Holly. That vile man killed the family pets—the hamsters, a puppy and so on—in ways that are unimaginably wicked. In common with so many abusers, he exploited her love for animals and used that against her. Eventually, as is the case so often, the violence towards the animals turned into violence towards Holly. Subsequently convicted and sentenced, Nicholas Metson, the man concerned, had previously been reported to the police for extreme cruelty towards pets. The violent behaviour did not first appear on the fatal day that Holly died—there were warning signs of animal cruelty for years before. Annette says that if she had known for how long he had been hurting the animals, and so Holly, she could have stopped what happened to her daughter. Annette’s courageous campaign since has been for what she calls, as I call it today, Holly’s law, a national register of those guilty of animal cruelty to help prevent violence against women. She wants to help others who are suffering similarly, and so has proposed Holly’s law. It would create a kind of register so that the police would know about animal abuse convictions when responding to reports of domestic abuse. I strongly support this. Better tracking and collecting of data on animal abusers can surely help in the campaign against domestic abuse, in addition to preventing further abuses of beloved pets. The correlation between animal abuse and domestic violence is proven, persuasive and undeniable. Domestic abuse charities have long been clear that there is a real and frightening link between the two. It stands to reason that people who are abusive to other people surely will not feel any guilt or doubts about harming animals in the same way. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals cites research that shows that 71% of domestic abuse victims report threats towards their pets. In my home county of Lincolnshire, the police revealed that animal abuse was reported in 3,000 domestic abuse incidents over just three years. The National Centre for Domestic Violence found that 64,000 civil protection order witness statements refer to the link between animal abuse and domestic abuse. The RSPCA and NSPCA have both highlighted that many domestic abuse victims report that their pets have also been abused, tortured or killed.