IT has been a week when the sexual offenders’ register has been in the national spotlight.

As a result of the clear mismanagement of Peter Chapman – the Facebook killer of Darlington student Ashleigh Hall – there have been calls for a review of the system for dealing with sex offenders.

But for all its flaws, at least there is a sex offenders’ register – a system for recording the track record of paedophiles and rapists. It is by no means perfect, but it is a great deal better than nothing.

But there is no such register for the perpetrators of domestic violence, the horror of which is underlined by today’s front page story about Stephen Spence.

It is a shocking account of brutality against women who started out trusting the Darlington slaughterman, but ended up with sickening physical wounds, and mental scars that may never heal.

This is a man who punched his victims until they lost consciousness, who gouged at their eyes, kicked them so badly that shoe imprints were left on their skin, and branded them with a steam iron.

We have published disturbing photographs of that physical abuse to highlight the reality of domestic violence which is all too prevalent behind closed doors.

Stephen Spence has a track record for this kind of cruelty. Eighteen years ago, he was jailed for leaving his then wife with severe bruises, a fractured rib and punctured lung.

Had his name been on a domestic violence register, there would have been greater protection for future partners – and we fail to understand why the Home Office is reluctant to act.