There’s been angry reaction to new guidelines – described by some as “two-tier sentencing” – which recommend judges consider whether a criminal is from a ethnic, cultural or faith minority before issuing a punishment.

The Sentencing Council, which sets out recommendations to courts in England and Wales, has issued fresh advice about how certain offenders should be processed.

But its updated guidance, which is due to come into force from April, has been described as enshrining a “double standard” by the shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.

He accused the council of setting rules which make “a custodial sentence less likely for those from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community”.

The independent body is now advising that a pre-sentence report (PSR) “will normally be considered necessary” before sentencing a criminal from an ethnic, cultural or faith minority.

A PSR assessment would also be expected for people from the transgender community and certain other groups, such as young adults aged 18 to 25, women and pregnant women.

Posting on X, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “I will be writing to the Sentencing Council to register my displeasure and to recommend reversing this change to guidance.

“There will never be a two-tier sentencing approach under my watch.”

In setting out the changes, Lord Justice William Davis said the reforms reflect evidence of disparities in sentencing outcomes, disadvantages faced within the criminal justice system and complexities in the circumstances of individual offenders.

The chair of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales said: “PSRs provide the court with information about the offender; they are not an indication of sentence. Sentences are decided by the independent judiciary”.

He added that a punishment tailored to the offender had the “greatest likelihood” of being effective.

According to the most recent government statistics, since 2018 white defendants are more likely to have a shorter jail sentence than any other ethnic group.

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The Sentencing Council is also advising judges and magistrates to consider rehabilitative sentences, or community sentences. It points out they can be more effective in reducing re-offending than a short term behind bars.

Among the fresh guidance is also a recommendation for courts to “avoid” sending pregnant women or mothers of babies to prison.

Janey Starling, co-director of feminist campaign group Level Up called the changes a “huge milestone”.

Meanwhile Liz Forrester, from No Births Behind Bars, said it finally recognises the “deadly impact” of prison on babies and pregnant women.

Pregnancy, childbirth and post-natal care had already been introduced in April 2024 as a new mitigating factor in England and Wales.

Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is a sprawling mass of humanity. 

It’s a sea of makeshift bamboo shelters, home to more than one million Rohingya refugees – a mainly Muslim minority from Rakhine state in Myanmar.

Some 700,000 fled their homeland back in 2017 – after the Myanmar military massacred thousands.

The army was accused of genocide by the United Nations.

The Rohingya refugees didn’t escape danger though.

Right now, violence is at its worst levels in the camps since 2017 and Rohingya people face a particularly cruel new threat – they’re being forced back to fight for the same Myanmar military accused of trying to wipe out their people.

Militant groups are recruiting Rohingya men in the camps, some at gunpoint, and taking them back to Myanmar to fight for a force that’s losing ground.

Jaker is just 19.

We’ve changed his name to protect his identity.

He says he was abducted at gunpoint last year by a group of nine men in Cox’s.

They tied his hands with rope he says and took him to the border where he was taken by boat with three other men to fight for the Myanmar military.

“It was heartbreaking,” he told me. “They targeted poor children. The children of wealthy families only avoided it by paying money.”

And he says the impact has been deadly.

“Many of our Rohingya boys, who were taken by force from the camps, were killed in battle.”

The situation in Cox’s is desperate.

People are disillusioned by poverty, violence and the plight of their own people and the civil war they ran from is getting worse.

In Rakhine, just across the border, there’s been a big shift in dynamics.

The Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group has all but taken control of the state from the ruling military junta.

Both the military and the AA are accused of committing atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.

And whilst some Rohingya claim they’re being forced into the fray – dragged back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, others are willing to go.

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Some are so aggrieved with the AA, they’re willing to support their former persecutors.

Abu Zar is one of those willing to take up arms.

But not for the military or AA, he says.

Everyone praying in the mosque with him is prepared to go back to protect their own cause he says – not anyone else’s.

“We want to fight for our rights because we have been demanding justice for a long time. But the situation has become unbearable,” he tells me.

It’s estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Rohingya have joined armed groups from this camp.

But the fight they are joining has become increasingly bloody.

In a cramped shelter, we meet Safura.

Five days ago she managed to get out of Myanmar but she had to be carried part of the way.

Her legs are riddled with bullet wounds and the pain is severe.

Her son, Aman, who lies on the floor next to her, has had his foot blown off.

They were injured she said, during an attack on her family home in the middle of the night.

“They entered our house and shot all my family members. My husband and mother-in-law were killed on the spot.”

The military denies forcing Rohingya to the battlefield. But the camps tell a different story- one of surging violence and vulnerability.

Sharon Holland sits surrounded by fresh flowers as she scrolls through photos on her phone of her daughter, Chloe.

Warning: This article contains references to suicide and domestic abuse

Beautiful, poised, Chloe stares back at her from the screen. She was a fun, independent young women – until she wasn’t.

Caught up in an abusive relationship with a former partner, who her mother calls a “monster”, Chloe became a shadow of her former self.

Sharon never met him as Chloe kept the ongoing relationship a secret but she had suspicions when her daughter, who had moved out of home, retreated from her friends and family.

“As far as I knew, they’d split up in September 2022 and she was living happily in Southampton,” she says.

But Sharon began to suspect the relationship might be back on after she spotted her daughter liking some of her ex-boyfriend’s Facebook posts.

“I saw a few hearts on his pictures, and thought ‘here we go’. But she would always deny it and say she would never get back with him. Of course, she was lying to me.”

Increasingly isolated from her loved ones, Chloe’s only communication with Sharon was through text messages and the occasional phone call.

“She turned up at people’s houses with black eyes and made excuses for marks around her neck and everything else,” says Sharon. “No one told me.”

Chloe took her own life in February 2023.

Her family is not alone in their grief. There are now more victims of domestic abuse who take their own life, than those who are killed by their partners.

Between April 2022 to March 2023, there were 93 people who took their own lives following domestic abuse. A 29% rise compared to the previous year.

Assaulted with a dumbbell and handed a knife

Marc Masterton, Chloe’s boyfriend at the time, was routinely assaulting her, controlling her appearance, isolating her from friends and family, belittling her and encouraging her to self-harm.

On one occasion after he assaulted her with a dumbbell, Chloe threatened to take her own life.

In response, Masterton handed her a knife.

“She said on a few occasions, his eyes went from blue to black and it terrified her,” Sharon says.

The abuse was happening in plain sight – in hotels, hostels and on public transport. Chloe eventually chose to report the abuse to police. But two weeks later, she attempted to take her own life.

At the intensive care unit she was taken to before she died, Sharon didn’t leave her bedside. It was here she learnt from a police officer about Chloe’s testimony a fortnight before.

Chloe’s evidence

“They told me she’d done a video statement for over two hours and were investigating him,” Sharon says.

“I’ve watched it. She was crying for lots of it and was distraught. I was devastated and angry. He was telling her to take her life. He was giving her knives up against her neck and then saying, you do it.”

Her evidence led to the conviction of her abuser. Masterton admitted coercive and controlling behaviour and was jailed for three years, nine months.

Justice which, Sharon feels, fell well below her expectations.

“We needed to get over four years for him to go on this dangerous person’s list, so he could be monitored as high risk,” she adds.

Sharon is now calling for tougher sentences for those convicted of coercive control.

The current maximum sentence a perpetrator can get for the offence is five years, but Sharon points to countries like France where the maximum sentence is 10 years.

“No amount of years is going to bring her back… But he needed to get more than that.”

The overlooked victims of a growing crisis

It’s incredibly rare to get a criminal investigation in these cases, says Hazel Mercer from the national charity, Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse.

“Most of the families that come to us where there’s been a suicide as result of domestic abuse, the biggest issue for them is the lack of acknowledgement of what has happened to their loved one. Is there going to be any justice that says this domestic abuse was a crime against this person who’s now dead?

“They ask, is anything like that going to happen, and at the moment, nine times out of ten, the answer is no.”

Hazel works with families who feel a lack of “professional curiosity” by authorities means critical connections are often missed.

“When we have a homicide, resources are put into it, there is a real investigation… For a suicide, we seldom see that investigative desire or professional curiosity to look behind that suicide and why it happened.”

Fighting for change

The Crown Prosecution Service is investigating the link between suicide and domestic abuse more closely.

Efforts are being made to educate police and prosecutors on coercive control’s deadly trajectory after the high-profile death of mother Kiena Dawes, who was abused before she died by suicide on 22 July 2022.

Sky News has learnt the CPS is actively assessing similar cases, but Chief Crown Prosecutor Kate Brown says “it isn’t straightforward”.

“Invariably because of the nature of coercive and controlling behaviour, a lot of that offending happens in private. So without the victim, that’s quite difficult,” she says.

They are working with police to unpick the detail of the abuse a victim suffered in the lead up to their death. Collating evidence from family, friends or even doctors if the victim’s medical records show there’s been a history of physical violence.

The Ministry of Justice told Sky News: “This government is committed to halving violence against women and girls. The independent sentencing review is looking at sentences for offences primarily committed against them.

“Victims of controlling and coercive behaviour will also now be better protected through a new law that ensures more abusers are subject to joined-up management by police and probation.”

For Sharon, her campaign is a way of honouring her daughter’s memory. “I won’t stop till I get justice for Chloe,” she says.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK