The daughter of a beloved lecturer has started a petition to make it mandatory for convicted murderers to commence their sentences in Category A facilities.

Claire Chick was murdered by Paul Butler, her ex-husband, outside her home in West Hoe Road in Plymouth on the evening of January 22 this year.

Bethany Hancock- Baxter, daughter of Claire Chick, explains in the change.org petition that: “Despite her desperate pleas for protection from the police over a span of six months, relating to his abusive behavior and relentless stalking, the system failed to offer her the safety she desperately needed. Her murderer was eventually sentenced on 25th April 2025, but distressingly, he is currently serving time in a Category C prison in Aylesbury.”

The Plymouth University lecturer was stabbed a minimum of 23 times and was pronounced dead in hospital as a result of her injuries a short time later.

Category C prisons, of the kind where Butler is held, are training and resettlement prisons which provide prisoners with the opportunity to develop their own skills so they can find work and resettle back into the community on release.

Bethany describes this as an “egregious oversight, as placing proven dangerous murderers in less secure environments undermines the severity of their crimes and does not adequately account for public safety concerns”.

In the petition which has over 1,500 signatures, Claire’s family are calling for murders to start their sentences in Category A prisons, which are high security prisons that house male prisoners who, if they were to escape, pose the most threat to the public, the police or national security.

“This change is necessary not only for public safety but also as a measure of justice for the victims and their families who have suffered unimaginable loss.”

To sign the petition, visit: www.change.org/p/mandate-category-a-prison-sentences-for-murder-convicts