People driven to kill their partners after years of domestic abuse could get lighter sentences under a new “Sally’s law” announced by justice ministers.

Judges will be required to treat years of physical abuse or coercive control as a mitigating factor that would allow them to reduce the jail sentences for those who kill their tormentors.

The changes to the law follow a review by Clare Wade, KC, who was defence barrister for Sally Challen, whose conviction for murdering her husband after years of coercive control was quashed by the Court of Appeal. 

Sally killed Richard, her husband of 31 years, with a hammer as he sat and ate in their Surrey home in August 2010. She was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence.

But that conviction was quashed when her legal team raised fresh evidence to show her fragile mental health at the time of the attack and the decades spent as a victim of her husband’s coercive and controlling behaviour.

Prosecutors accepted her plea of manslaughter in August 2019 and she was sentenced to 14 years. She walked free with time already served.

The moves are part of a major overhaul of laws for domestic homicide designed to protect vulnerable victims of abuse or coercive behaviour and increase the sentences for perpetrators and bitter partners who murder following the end of a relationship.