'I still miss him': Woman who killed abusive husband with hammer walks free

A woman who spent nearly a decade behind bars for killing her abusive husband has told how she still loves him after finally walking free.

Sally Challen was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment, which was today reduced to nine years and four months after a court accepted her guilty plea to manslaughter.

The 65-year-old had served almost 10 years after being convicted of murdering her husband Richard following a trial in 2011.

Ms Challen told journalists in a news conference following the decision: "I still love Richard and miss him dreadfully and wish none of this had ever happened."

"It's been a really long road and at times I didn't see any end to it."

She claimed she suffered years of controlling and humiliating abuse before she killed the 61-year-old in August 2010 in a hammer attack.

But her conviction was quashed and a new trial ordered at the Court of Appeal in February, in light of new evidence about her mental state at the time.

She said: "Many other women who are victims of abuse, as I was, are in prison today serving life sentences.

"I know this because I've met them. They have suffered abuse and other miscarriages of justice and should be serving sentences of manslaughter and not murder."

Ms Challen, of Claygate, Surrey, admitted manslaughter but pleaded not guilty to murdering her husband on 14 August 2010 and was due to face a fresh trial on 1 July.

And at a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, the prosecution announced her plea to the lesser charge had been accepted following a psychiatric report which concluded she was suffering an "adjustment disorder".

Her son David wrote on Twitter: "As a family we are overjoyed at today's verdict and that it has brought an end to the suffering we have endured together for the past 9 years.

"Our story has become the landmark case society needs to recognise the true severity of coercive control. #SallyChallen #CoerciveControl"

In a victim impact statement read to court, her other son James said: "We have lost a father and we do not seek to justify our mother's actions."

But he said his mother "does not deserve to be punished further".

At a previous hearing, Ms Challen had been released on bail into the care of her sons, James and David, who have supported her throughout her legal ordeal.