Public records us vs uk

Ok my love interest in England may eventually have to go to court over shared custody of the children. Right now she gets them 80 % of each week. In the past when she was living with her ex (children's father) he would be verbally abusive and do things to upset her and kids. ( threaten to jump out window, hit himself, break things, encourage her to commit violence toward him) all to get attention. He definitely has a temper and has been arrested a few times whilst living with her and she got a protection order against him and he moved out. He is now married to someone else and has possibly done illegal violent things to other people and possibly his new wife. In the US, arrest records are public record & anyone can search for specific name in certain county and find out have they been arrested and for what and when. How public is this information in UK? Is there money that can be paid to do a background check on him and see if any recent infractions come up?

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I asked my UKC husband about your situation and hopefully I'm relaying this correctly. (He's Scottish so depending on where your partner lives, YMMV.)

In short, no, not like in the US. If you go to court, the court can request records. But you as a private citizen will not have much recourse to a criminal records check without the court being involved. Unless you can find something on Google, you'll have to rely on the judge or possibly a lawyer.

That being said, I just poked around Google for a few minutes and found websites that offer background checks. However, they don't seem to include criminal history, which I think is what you are looking for.

Best of luck to your partner. It sounds like a terrible situation and I hope she and her kids are safe and healthy.