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

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.

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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.”