Education is the key to dealing with domestic abuse

Mrs Challen killed her husband Richard in 2010 by striking him repeatedly with a hammer. She was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 22 years. That sentence was reduced on appeal to 18 years.

Diminished responsibility

A further appeal was launched in 2017 and eventually in February last year the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial. The reason for this was new medical evidence which supported Mrs Challen’s defence of diminished responsibility. The medical expert concluded that she was suffering from an adjustment disorder – an abnormality of the mind that substantially impaired her mental responsibility for her acts – as a result of suffering years of abuse and coercive control at the hands of her husband.

In June Mrs Challen’s guilty plea to manslaughter was accepted and she was sentenced to nine years and four months with the result that she could walk free from court due to time served.

It has been reported that last week Mrs Challen took part in a talk about domestic abuse at the Senedd home of the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff...

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