A British woman who killed her husband with a hammer had her murder conviction quashed on Thursday after an appeal found the original trial had not factored in the effects of decades of domestic abuse.
Supporters of Sally Challen, 65, including her two sons, hailed the decision to order a retrial as a landmark for victims of coercive control, criminalized in 2015, which involves extreme emotional and psychological abuse.
“This is an amazing moment,” Sally Challen’s son, David Challen, told reporters outside the court after the verdict was announced. “The abuse our mother suffered we felt was never recognized properly and her mental condition was not taken into account.”
About 2 million people, predominantly women, suffer domestic abuse every year in Britain, the government said.
It can take myriad forms, from beatings to rape, control of a partner’s actions, or limiting access to money, family and friends.
Sally Challen was convicted of murdering her husband, Richard, in 2011, and handed a 22-year jail sentence, later reduced to 18 years.
Her supporters say she was a victim of coercive control by her husband for more than 40 years, which was a factor underlying the attack and its immediate trigger.
Her legal team argued that coercive control, which was criminalized four years after Challen’s trial, had been poorly understood at the time and was not properly considered.
Women’s rights campaigners hailed the ruling as a significant step forward for victims.
“Sally Challen and her children experienced decades of controlling abuse at the hands of her late husband; this important contextual information was never considered when she was convicted of murder,” Women’s Aid’s Sian Hawkins said. “However, it is a bittersweet victory for Sally, her son, David, and their family with the court ordering a retrial.”
The Everyday Sexism Project, which encourages women to speak up about offensive behavior, from lewd comments to harassment, said on Twitter that it was “an important step towards understanding coercive control.”
Domestic abuse costs England and Wales about £66 billion (US$87.4 billion) annually, research by the British Home Office showed.
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