Domestic killers with history of coercive or controlling behaviour face tougher sentences

Published

3 years ago

March 17, 2023

admin

Domestic abusers with a history of coercive or controlling behaviour will be given tougher sentences if they kill their partner under new government plans.

Judges will be asked to consider longer jail terms for people with a history of abuse and aggression, so that coercive and controlling behaviour, as well as the use of excessive violence, will be made aggravating factors in sentencing decisions for murder.

Manslaughter sentencing guidelines around “rough sex” are also set to be reviewed.

The changes follow a series of recommendations by Clare Wade KC, a leading criminal barrister tasked by the government to carry out an independent review into domestic homicide sentencing.

Ms Wade was the leading defence barrister for Sally Challen, who suffered years of domestic abuse by her husband before she killed him with a hammer in 2010.

Ms Challen was tried and convicted for her husband’s murder but was released in 2019 after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) eventually accepted her plea of manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

The government commissioned Ms Wade’s review following the murders of Poppy Devey Waterhouse, 24, and Ellie Gould, 17, who were both stabbed to death in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Domestic abuse campaigners welcomed the news around tougher sentencing but also highlighted the low level of conviction rates for coercive control, which was made a criminal offence in the Serious Crime Act 2015.

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, told Sky News: “It’s important that the police, prosecutors and courts see domestic abuse primarily as a pattern of behaviour rather than single incidents that will almost always involve an element of coercive controlling behaviour.

“But wider failings across the Criminal Justice System mean that poor training and investigative practices within policing often lead to coercive control not being identified or understood well.

“Tougher sentencing alone is not enough to act as a deterrent and will not in itself prevent more women being killed.

“We need to see more investment in prevention work, including better management of perpetrators and interventions to stop men killing women in the first place.”

Lucy Hadley, head of policy at Women’s Aid, said the law change was a “positive step towards greater awareness and recognition of the immense damage caused by controlling behaviours”.

“However, the reality is that conviction rates for coercive control remain very low,” she added.

Ms Wade’s review, which the government will respond to in full in the summer, found that the sentences issued did not adequately reflect the years of abuse that precede many domestic homicides.

Around one in four (26%) homicides in England and Wales are committed by a current or former partner or relative, according to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

Of the murder cases reviewed by Ms Wade, more than half (51%) involved controlling or coercive behaviour.

Excessive violence, also known as overkill, accounted for 60% of the cases reviewed by Ms Wade. Men were identified as perpetrators in all but one case.

Following their deaths, the mothers of Ms Devey Waterhouse and Ms Gould both campaigned to have the law changed so that killers who use murder weapons that are already at the crime scene receive longer jail terms.

Currently, 25-year sentences only apply to murders where a weapon has been taken to the crime scene with intent, but the government is launching a public consultation on whether that sentence should apply in murder cases where there has been a history of controlling and coercive abuse.

Labour’s shadow justice minister Ellie Reeves said: “We welcome any policy that tackles violence against women and girls.

“However, the Conservatives are failing to protect domestic abuse survivors, leaving perpetrators going unpunished.

“With a record courts backlog, prosecution rates for domestic abuse have halved whilst reports have more than doubled since 2015. Vulnerable women don’t need more dither and delay – they need action.”

UK

UK looking at Denmark model to cut illegal migration

Published

3 hours ago

November 8, 2025

admin

UK looking at Denmark model to cut illegal migration

The Home Office is looking at what Denmark is doing to cut illegal migration, Sky News understands.

Last month, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood dispatched officials to the Nordic nation to study its border control and asylum policies, which are considered some of the toughest in Europe.

In particular, officials are understood to be looking at Denmark’s tighter rules on family reunion and restricting most refugees to a temporary stay in the country.

Ms Mahmood will announce a major shake-up of the UK’s immigration system later this month, PA is reporting.

Labour MPs are said to be split on the move.

Some, in so-called Red Wall seats which are seen as vulnerable to challenge from Reform UK, want ministers to go further in the direction Denmark has taken.

But others believe the policies will estrange progressive voters and push the Labour Party too far to the right.

What are Denmark’s migration rules?

Denmark has adopted increasingly restrictive rules in order to deal with migration over the last few years.

In Denmark, most asylum or refugee statuses are temporary. Residency can be revoked once a country is deemed safe.

In order to achieve settlement, asylum seekers are required to be in full-time employment, and the length of time it takes to acquire those rights has been extended.

Denmark also has tougher rules on family reunification – both the sponsor and their partner are required to be at least 24 years old, which the Danish government says is designed to prevent forced marriages.

The sponsor must also not have claimed welfare for three years and must provide a financial guarantee for their partner. Both must also pass a Danish language test.

In 2018, Denmark introduced what it called a ghetto package, a controversial plan to radically alter some residential areas, including by demolishing social housing. Areas with over 1,000 residents were defined as ghettos if more than 50% were “immigrants and their descendants from non-Western countries”.

In 2021, the left of centre government passed a law that allowed refugees arriving on Danish soil to be moved to asylum centres in a partner country – and subsequently agreed with Rwanda to explore setting up a program, although that has been put on hold.

It comes as the government continues to struggle to get immigration under control, with rising numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel over the last few months and a migrant, deported under the UK’s returns deal with France, re-entering the country.

Some 648 people crossed the Channel to Britain in nine boats on Friday, according to Home Office figures, bringing the total for the year to 38,223.

Ms Mahmood wants deterrents in place to stop migrants seeking to enter the country via unauthorised routes.

She also wants to make it easier to remove those who are found to have no right to stay in the UK.

Sources told the PA news agency she was eager to meet her Danish counterpart, Rasmus Stoklund, the country’s immigration minister, at the earliest possible convenience.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Mr Stoklund likened Danish society to “the hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings” and said people coming to the country who do not contribute positively would not be welcome.

Mr Stoklund said: “We are a small country. We live peacefully and quietly with each other. I guess you could compare us to the hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings.”

“We expect people who come here to participate and contribute positively, and if they don’t they aren’t welcome.”

The split in Labour was apparent from public comments by MPs today.

Stoke-on-Trent Central Labour MP Gareth Snell told Radio 4’s Today programme that any change bringing “fairness” to an asylum system that his constituents “don’t trust” was “worth exploring”.

But Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome, who is a member of the party’s Socialist Campaign Group caucus, said: “I think these are policies of the far right. I don’t think anyone wants to see a Labour government flirting with them.”

UK

How a cup of coffee led Sky News to a sex offender on the run

Published

18 hours ago

November 8, 2025

admin

How a cup of coffee led Sky News to a sex offender on the run

It started with a strong espresso in a simple cafe on a side street in north London.

Several Algerian men were inside, a few others were outside on the pavement, smoking.

I’d been told the wanted prisoner might be in Finsbury Park, so I ordered a coffee and asked if they’d seen him.

They were happy to tell me that some of them knew Brahim Kaddour-Cherif – the 24-year-old offender who was on the run.

One of the customers revealed to me that he’d actually seen him the night before.

“He wants to hand himself to police,” the friend said candidly.

This was the beginning of the end of a high-profile manhunt.

The Algerian convicted sex offender had been at large since 29 October, after he was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Within an hour of meeting the friend in the cafe, he had followed myself and camera operator Josh Masters to a nearby street.

We weren’t yet filming – he didn’t want any attention or fuss surrounding him.

“Follow me, he’s in the park,” the man told me.

“Follow – but not too close.”

We did.

I was in the same park a few weeks ago after fugitive Hadush Kebatu, the Ethiopian sex offender – also wrongly released from prison – was arrested in Finsbury Park.

It was odd to be back in the same spot in such similar circumstances.

Read more on Tom’s story:
Wrongly released prisoner’s angry reaction
‘I’m glad he’s been arrested‘

As he led us through the park past joggers, young families and people playing tennis, the man headed for the gates near Finsbury Park station.

All of a sudden, two police officers ran past us.

The Met had received a tip-off from a member of the public.

It was frantic. Undercover officers, uniformed cops, screeching tyres and blaring sirens. We were in the middle of the manhunt.

As they scoured the streets at speed, we walked by some of the Algerian men I’d seen in the cafe.

One man near the group was wearing green tracksuit bottoms, a beanie hat and had glasses on.

“It’s him, it’s him,” one of the other men said to me, gesturing towards him.

The man in the beanie then quickly turned on his heel and walked off.

“It’s him, it’s him,” another guy agreed.

The suspect was walking off while the police were still searching the nearby streets.

Josh and I caught up with him and I asked directly: “Are you Brahim?”

You may have watched the exchange in the Sky News video – he was in denial, evasive and pretended the suspect had pedalled off on a Lime bike.

I can only guess he knew the game was up, but for whatever reason, he was keeping up the lie.

Moments later, one of the bystanders told me “it is him” – with added urgency.

Only the prisoner knows why he then walked up to the nearby police van – officers quickly moved to handcuff him and tell him why he was being arrested.

Over the next 10 minutes, he became agitated. His story changed as I repeatedly asked if he had been the man inside HMP Wandsworth.

Officers needed confirmation too – one quickly pulled out a smartphone and checked an image of the wanted man from one of Sky News’ online platforms.

“It’s not my f****** fault, they release me!” he yelled at me.

The search was over, the prisoner cage in the back of the van was opened and he was guided in.

I then spoke to another Algerian man who had tipped off the police – he told me he hated sex offenders and the shame he felt over the whole episode.

The community had done the right thing – there were two tip-offs – one to me, one to the police.

The farce of this manhunt had gone on long enough.

UK

Nadjib, who tipped off police over released prisoner Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, tells Sky News he’s ‘happy to see him arrested’

Published

18 hours ago

November 8, 2025

admin

Nadjib, who tipped off police over released prisoner Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, tells Sky News he's 'happy to see him arrested'

“It’s him, it’s him, it’s him”, the man told me urgently.

While police were frantically searching in Finsbury Park for wanted sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, locals were telling me where he was.

Immediately after the dramatic arrest, filmed exclusively by Sky News we spoke to the North African man who tipped off the police.

Nadjib had been on the lookout for the convicted sex offender, who had been spending time in different parts of north London since his release from HMP Wandsworth.

He even had a folded-up newspaper clipping in his pocket so that he could check the picture himself.

He told Sky News he was “very happy when he got arrested”.

“I don’t like the sex offenders,” he said.

“I know him from the community. He has been around here every night since he was released from prison.”

Not only did he tip the police off about the prisoner’s whereabouts, but he also witnessed the other high-profile manhunt that ended in the same park last month.

Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu was also arrested in Finsbury Park after a 48-hour manhunt in the capital. He was then deported to Ethiopia.