A NEWPORT woman who was shot and maimed by her estranged husband said she is angered Gwent Police have again been criticised for their handling of another domestic violence case.

Rachel Williams was nearly killed by her husband Darren in August 2011 at a Malpas Road hairdresser's shop. He later killed himself.

She said she had been left disturbed that, as in her case, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had found Gwent Police failed the Buckley family of Cwmbran in key areas - revealed in a Serious Case Review published on Wednesday.

It found three generations of the family – Kim, 46, Kayleigh, 17, and six-month old Kimberley – had been killed by Carl Mills in September 2012 after the full extent of his violent past was not uncovered by police or social services, or revealed to worried mum Kim.

Although it was found Mills was grooming the girl he met online as a 15-year-old, her family was told nothing could be done because he was not breaking the law.

Welsh Women's Aid hit out after the publication of a domestic homicide review, probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and a review by the safeguarding children board, raising concerns about the Buckley case, alongside those of Mrs Williams, Caroline Parry who was shot dead by her estranged husband in Newport, and the case of Joanna Michael, murdered by her former boyfriend after her call from St Mellons went through to Gwent Police instead of the South Wales force.

Yesterday, Mrs Williams said: “What lessons have been learned from my case? It is at the cost of families and loved ones. It is really frustrating.

“It’s just not good enough. It’s like Joanna Michael’s mum said: she lost her daughter, I nearly lost my life.

“I saw the press conference with [Gwent Police’s] Assistant Chief Constable Lorraine Bottomley. She was saying that they try to follow every recommendation but for me it’s not working.

“Three people have lost their lives again after failings by Gwent Police.”

When the IPCC looked at Ms Williams’ case in November 2012, it upheld four of 13 complaints and said the force had failed in call handling, record-keeping and awareness of force policy and procedures.

At the time the then IPCC Commissioner for Wales Tom Davies said he hoped Gwent Police had learned "appropriate lessons”.

On Wednesday charity Welsh Women’s Aid said the failures highlighted in the report into Mills represented “another incident in a series of damning reports regarding domestic abuse and violence against women and girls in recent years.”

Gwent Police's Assistant Chief Constable Lorraine Bottomley said: “We again express our condolences toward the family and friends of Kim, Kayleigh and Kimberley who died in such tragic circumstances and our sympathies toward Mrs Williams.

“Over the last four years we have made progress in our efforts to try to stop incidents like this happening again. We have extended the training we deliver on domestic abuse and child sexual exploitation, with particular emphasis being put on the importance of front-line officers and their supervisors. In the last year the force has invested in the biggest transformation of its IT systems in a generation, making it much easier for officers to store and access police information electronically and in one location. We have reviewed our policy on the use of the Police National Database (PND) to make it clear to staff that if a suspected abuser lives, or has lived, outside the force area, then a PND check must be made.

“In recent years we have made significant improvements in our arrangements for working with partners in social care, health and the third sector to protect vulnerable people. Most notably we have invested in dedicated resources to tackle vulnerability associated with domestic abuse, missing children and child sexual exploitation.

“Our work in these areas has been recognised as good practice and we are now seeking to develop even better arrangements by working with our partners towards better integration of services and broadening our scope to cover all areas of protecting vulnerable people.

“We deal with over 1000 incidents of domestic abuse a month which reflects the wider social context here in Gwent, but I remain determined to ensure we do everything we possibly can not only to respond effectively when incidents are reported to us but support the campaign to prevent this happening in the first place.”