The initiative is being launched with £402,000 of Government funding and will be jointly led and monitored by Sussex Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne and Sussex Police.
Miss Bourne, who was once the victim of a stalker, said: Before this unit, there was no specialist partner intervention for those who continually abuse and, as a result, we saw far too many perpetrators in Sussex slipping through the criminal justice net, going on to reoffend and hurt more people. As a partnership we are determined, from today onwards, to challenge and change domestic abuse perpetrators in a way that lasts.
A force spokesman said: We applaud the work of media outlets such as the Express in highlighting the issue and showing what can be done.
Dangerous criminals will be subject to the new High Harm Domestic Abuse (DA) Perpetrator Unit in Sussex. It follows government funding worth £400,000 to crack down on those who batter their partners and think they can escape the consequences. Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne says the unit will track down the “most active, dangerous and serial perpetrators of domestic abuse”. The unit will address the reasons why the thugs commit the abusive crimes. Among the new team will be detectives and those with the role of supervising criminals in the community, and they will be joined by a mental health worker from Brighton Housing Trust, a drugs and alcohol worker from the charity Change Grow Live, an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor from Worth Services, and probation-trained officers from Seetec Justice.