Sally Challen, who killed her husband in 2010, can appeal against her conviction because the law now recognises that domestic violence can include ‘coercive control’
The word “domestic” has always struck me as a tricky one when followed by “violence”. Domestic feels cosy, small, the stakes are low, the radiator’s on, Pointless starts in a sec, the litter tray needs seeing to. All that gentle intimacy, all those scatter cushions, all that privacy. Which all feels rather safe and comforting, until you add that second word, and are forced, suddenly, to imagine the wrong relationship, the wrong house, the double glazing that doesn’t just keep traffic noise out, but keeps fights in, doors, pillows, that muffle the sounds of a woman being quietly abused, over anniversaries, Christmases, through whole box sets. Domestic violence, as we’re learning, is often insidious and subtle, and, for many of the women that suffer it, worse for the fact that it happens at home, where their children are, in the place where they’re meant to run for safety.
Last week, Sally Challen, who in 2011 had been convicted of her husband Richard’s murder and handed a 22-year sentence, was granted permission to appeal. Sally – now 63, a mother of two, who’d been with Richard since the age of 15 – doesn’t deny that she bludgeoned him to death with a hammer, before driving to Beachy Head to kill herself. But what’s changed in the years she’s been in prison, is that the law now recognises that domestic violence can’t always be quantified simply in bruises and broken arms, but may also include “coercive control”, where it’s not just a person’s physical integrity that’s violated, but their human rights.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2FL7Vyl
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