Eight years after Sally Challen fatally struck her husband Richard with a hammer, she has won the right to appeal her murder conviction on the grounds of coercive and controlling behaviour. The case, which first made headlines in 2010, is now being re-examined in light of legal changes that criminalised such behaviour in 2015.
In August 2010, Sally, then 56, returned to the family home in Claygate, Surrey, where she and Richard, 61, were planning to reconcile. After buying bacon and eggs for breakfast, she discovered a phone call from a woman Richard had met on a dating site. When challenged, Richard told her not to question him. Sally then took a hammer and struck him more than 20 times, before placing a note reading 'I love you, Sally' on his body.
At her 2011 trial, the prosecution portrayed Sally as a jealous and obsessive wife. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Judge Christopher Critchlow remarked that she had been 'eaten up with jealousy' and had killed 'the only man you loved'.
However, Sally's lawyer, Harriet Wistrich, now argues that Richard subjected his wife to years of coercive control, a pattern of behaviour that was not a criminal offence at the time of the trial. Wistrich, co-founder of Justice for Women, has gathered witness statements and emails that were not used in the original trial to support this claim.
The appeal, expected later this autumn, marks a landmark case in UK law. If successful, it could set a precedent for other women who have killed abusive partners but were not believed due to a lack of physical evidence.
