A mother who bludgeoned her husband to death with a hammer after years of being abused had her murder conviction quashed yesterday.
Sally Challen’s court victory was described as a ‘watershed moment for victims of domestic violence’.
Cheers erupted from family, friends and supporters in the public gallery of Court 4 at London’s Royal Courts of Justice as Mrs Challen’s conviction was quashed.
It is the first time pleas of being ‘coercively controlled’ have been raised in appealing a murder conviction.
Appearing via videolink from HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, Mrs Challen, 65, who has served eight years in custody, wept and hugged a prison officer.
But hopes that she would be released immediately were dashed when it was ruled the former Police Federation worker will face a murder retrial.
A new jury will hear ‘fresh evidence’ which has emerged on Mrs Challen’s mental state at the time of the killing in 2010. The case has been cited as a turning point in the quest for justice for victims of domestic abuse and has been supported by charities including Justice For Women.
It centres on the years of ‘coercive and controlling behaviour’ that Mrs Challen allegedly suffered at the hands of Richard Challen, her husband of 31 years.
The couple met when she was 15 and he was 22, but their relationship was said to have been marred by Mr Challen’s numerous affairs, intimidation and ‘gaslighting’ – a term used to describe making a partner feel as though they are going mad.
This specific type of abuse rose to public consciousness in 2016 when it featured in a storyline on The Archers, which may have partly inspired Mrs Challen to recognise herself as a victim of the behaviour, the court heard earlier.
Coercive and controlling behaviour became a criminal offence in 2015 – four years after she was convicted of murder. Her lawyers argued that had its impact been widely known at the time of the trial, the jury may have convicted Mrs Challen of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
They claimed that the harm caused as a result of coercive control, over years in which her husband controlled her finances, visited prostitutes and made her perform all household chores, was not sufficiently appreciated by psychiatrists at the time of the trial.
Lady Justice Hallett, sitting with Mr Justice Sweeney and Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said: ‘The Court of Appeal heard that, in the opinion of a consultant forensic psychiatrist, the appellant was suffering from two mental disorders at the time of the killing.
David Challen speaks out after mother's murder conviction overturned
Loaded: 0%
Progress: 0%
00:00
‘This evidence was not available at the time of the trial and the court quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.’
Mrs Challen’s barrister, Clare Wade QC, said her client’s personality disorder symptoms were suppressed by the coercive control she suffered at the hands of her husband.
‘She had a prior existing condition which meant that she was susceptible to coercive control and these symptoms did not emerge properly until the crisis happened, with which the trial was concerned.’
Miss Wade said Mrs Challen’s trial in 2011 had focused on infidelity rather than other relevant evidence, adding: ‘What they did was they then adduced only evidence that went back to 2004. The case was condensed down to something which in truth if all of her instructions and accounts were taken into account, was not the case.’
Lady Justice Hallett asked Miss Wade: ‘To get this straight in my mind, would a good working title be “psychological battered women syndrome”?’ Miss Wade said: ‘Yes, absolutely.
Sally Challen with her husband Richard on their wedding day. The couple's sons said their mother was subjected to years of controlling behaviour
Challen, pictured with one of her sons as a child, should have been afforded more legal protection at her original trial, according to her family
Her sons claim it was such controlling behaviour that drove their mother to kill him. At her original five-day trial at Guildford Crown Court, Mrs Challen’s defence team relied on a defence of diminished responsibility, hoping she’d be found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Her husband’s alleged behaviour was deemed to be irrelevant and Mrs Challen’s lawyers believed it would look bad for them to ‘speak ill of the dead’.
David says it was ‘excruciating’ watching the trial unfold in the public gallery and he was in ‘deep shock’ when his mother was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. ‘The verdict was the wrong one. She deserves justice,’ he said when he spoke to the Mail last year.
‘People need to understand that she killed my father not because she is a bad person but because he drove her to the edge.’ Speaking of the complex emotions behind his mother’s case, David said of his father ‘in a weird way, we still love him’ but added that ‘nothing will ever be solved in society unless we look at the root cause. Right now this conviction serves absolutely no one in society and that’s one of the most frustrating things.’
Mrs Challen’s own testimony illustrates the same complexities and, incredibly, the same love. Speaking after her arrest in 2010, she told police: ‘I felt without Richard I was worthless, I couldn’t go on, I couldn’t cope. I loved him and he was part of my life, part of me. My whole identity was built up as a part of a couple. I just couldn’t exist separately. I still think about Richard all the time, every night.’ When she was sentenced to life imprisonment, Judge Christopher Critchlow told her: ‘You are somebody who killed the only man you loved and you will have to live with knowing what you did.’
Yesterday’s glimmer of hope for Mrs Challen, however, has come largely thanks to the love of the two sons who have stood by her as she makes legal history.
Sally Challen with her husband Richard on their wedding day. The couple's sons said their mother was subjected to years of controlling behaviour
Challen, pictured with one of her sons as a child, should have been afforded more legal protection at her original trial, according to her familyHer sons claim it was such controlling behaviour that drove their mother to kill him. At her original five-day trial at Guildford Crown Court, Mrs Challen’s defence team relied on a defence of diminished responsibility, hoping she’d be found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Her husband’s alleged behaviour was deemed to be irrelevant and Mrs Challen’s lawyers believed it would look bad for them to ‘speak ill of the dead’.David says it was ‘excruciating’ watching the trial unfold in the public gallery and he was in ‘deep shock’ when his mother was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. ‘The verdict was the wrong one. She deserves justice,’ he said when he spoke to the Mail last year.‘People need to understand that she killed my father not because she is a bad person but because he drove her to the edge.’ Speaking of the complex emotions behind his mother’s case, David said of his father ‘in a weird way, we still love him’ but added that ‘nothing will ever be solved in society unless we look at the root cause. Right now this conviction serves absolutely no one in society and that’s one of the most frustrating things.’Mrs Challen’s own testimony illustrates the same complexities and, incredibly, the same love. Speaking after her arrest in 2010, she told police: ‘I felt without Richard I was worthless, I couldn’t go on, I couldn’t cope. I loved him and he was part of my life, part of me. My whole identity was built up as a part of a couple. I just couldn’t exist separately. I still think about Richard all the time, every night.’ When she was sentenced to life imprisonment, Judge Christopher Critchlow told her: ‘You are somebody who killed the only man you loved and you will have to live with knowing what you did.’Yesterday’s glimmer of hope for Mrs Challen, however, has come largely thanks to the love of the two sons who have stood by her as she makes legal history.
0 Comments