About 2 million people, predominantly women, suffer domestic abuse every year in Britain
By Sonia Elks
LONDON, Feb 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - 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, criminalised in 2015, which involves extreme emotional and psychological abuse.
"This is an amazing moment," her son David Challen told reporters outside the court after the verdict was announced.
"The abuse our mother suffered we felt was never recognised 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, with a 22-year jail sentence, later reduced to 18.
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 criminalised 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 of emotional abuse.
"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," said Sian Hawkins at Women's Aid.
"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 behaviour, from lewd comments to harassment, said on Twitter that it was "an important step towards understanding coercive control".
Domestic abuse costs England and Wales some 66 billion pounds ($85 billion) annually, mostly due to its physical and emotional impact on victims - as well as costs to police, health and support services, according to research by the Home Office.
(Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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