Sally Challen appeal: judges give hope to women who killed their abusive husbands

Dozens of women imprisoned for murdering their partners after violent, abusive relationships will seek to overturn their convictions, lawyers have said, after a wife jailed for bludgeoning her husband to death with a hammer won her appeal to secure a retrial.

Sally Challen’s murder conviction was quashed today and a retrial ordered by Court of Appeal judges after they heard she suffered four decades of controlling behaviour and humiliation at the hands of Richard Challen, her car dealer husband of 31 years, before killing him in August 2010.

The 65-year-old Police Federation office manager was sentenced to 22 years in prison following a trial at Guildford Crown Court, later downgraded to 18 years on appeal.

The Court of Appeal ruled that evidence from a psychiatrist that she was suffering from two mental disorders at the time of the killing undermined the safety of her conviction.

Harriet Wistrich, Mrs Challen’s lawyer, said there were “many more cases” of women whose years of abuse by their partners would merit a reassessment of their convictions. One has already been given leave to appeal.

“How many have been convicted for murder where they’ve killed someone abusing them?” said Ms Wistrich. “There are probably dozens of them.”

Speaking after the ruling, Mrs Challen’s son David, 31, said: “The courts have acknowledged this case needs to be looked at again, as we have always said as a family. The abuse our mother suffered, we felt, was never recognised properly and her mental conditions were not taken into account.

“As sons, we get another shot for our story to be heard, the events that led to our father’s death to be heard, and for our mother to have another shot at freedom – a freedom she has never had since the age of 15.”

Mrs Challen’s appeal has been seen by campaigners as a test case for how domestic abuse is treated in the courts, because it in part involved a new understanding of coercive control.

Controlling or coercive behaviour in a relationship became a criminal offence in 2015, carrying a maximum five-year jail sentence.

The Government announced last month that non-physical and economic abuse were to be included in the first legal definition of domestic abuse as part of a landmark overhaul of the law.

Ms Wistrich is working on three cases similar to Mrs Challen’s and Justice For Women, which supported her case, is working on at least two more, including those of Farieissia Martin and Emma-Jayne Magson.

Martin, a mother of two, was convicted of the murder of Kyle Farrell, her violent partner, when she was 22. She was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

She had returned from an evening out when he attacked and tried to strangle her. She claimed she stabbed him, in self-defence, with a single wound to the heart.

Her lawyers say Farrell’s history of violence was not addressed during the trial and a mental health assessment was not carried out.

Magson was convicted of murder in 2016 and sentenced to life imprisonment after killing her boyfriend, James Knight, who was described by her lawyers as controlling, jealous and physically aggressive.

Her legal team said no medical or psychiatric evidence was put before the jury despite the defence concluding that she had been suffering from an emotionally unstable personality disorder.

They also said that the jury was not made aware of the full extent of the abuse to which she had been subjected by Knight, nor that she had suffered a miscarriage just one week before the killing.

Three Court of Appeal judges granted an application in November from Magson’s lawyers to appeal against her conviction.

Ms Wistrich said that the decision to quash Mrs Challen’s conviction could also influence murder cases that were being tried currently.

“There will be cases going to trial now and the publicity of this means they may have a better chance of advancing defence cases,” she said.

Claire Mawer, a barrister and member of Justice for Women, said there needed to be a rethink of how women were treated by the courts.

“The number of women given prison sentences is extraordinarily high and there’s no justice in that if you accept most women offend as a result of trauma,” she said.

“Courts should afford women partial defences for murder or reflect the abuse suffered in the sentences passed.”

Although the judges today ordered a retrial of Mrs Challen’s murder conviction, they declined to hear an application by her lawyers for her to be released on bail. Her legal team is expected to pursue bail at a future crown court hearing.

Mrs Challen was said to be “delighted” at the result but “daunted by what’s to come”.

The fresh murder charge will be put to her within two months. Her legal team said that she would accept a manslaughter plea if it was offered, which could prevent a retrial. Her family wanted to avoid going back to court and having to relive the past.

“Our hope is that this retrial doesn’t happen,” said David Challen. “Our mother has served eight years and we don’t want her to serve any more time.”

Chris Jenney, Mrs Challen’s brother, said: “I’d like to have seen her walk out of prison. That would have been the ultimate. I just hope [the next step] doesn’t take too long. She’s no threat to society. There’s no public interest or benefit to her being in prison.”   

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