After Sam Pybus killed Sophie Moss, the pathologist concluded that he’d strangled her for 'tens of seconds or even minutes'. Either way, it was long enough to starve her brain of oxygen and end her life.
For this, he got four years, eight months. Less than you could get for pet theft. Paradoxically, also less than the five-year maximum that now applies to 'non-fatal strangulation' after it was criminalised in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
Shockingly, this case is not an isolated example. Take Jason Gaskell who got six years in 2018 for killing Laura Huteson by slitting her throat. Or John Broadhurst who got three years eight months the same year for killing Natalie Connolly after he beat her so badly that she sustained over 75 injuries including a haemorrhage after a bottle of carpet cleaner was inserted into her vagina.
What do these cases have in common? All the victims were killed by their partners in acts of extreme violence where the sexual gratification of the perpetrator was part of the motivation. On each occasion they were prosecuted for ‘gross negligence manslaughter’ and on each occasion the judge decided that Category C of the sentencing guidelines should apply: the second lowest category for this type of offence carrying a sentence of just three to seven years. It applies when the Judge thinks there has been more than just ‘a lapse in the offenders otherwise satisfactory standard of care’ but less than a ‘blatant disregard for a very high risk of death’.
For as long as I have campaigned against sexual violence, I have struggled to understand how extended strangulation or pressing a blade against a person’s throat could show anything other than blatant disregard for their life. It appears that I am not alone in taking this view. When Mrs Justice Carr sentenced James Morton in 2016 after he killed Hannah Pearson in another horrific strangulation case, she found the 'obviously dangerous sexual activity instigated by you to satisfy your own sexual desire and involving an evident risk of death' was so serious that the lowest sentence she could impose was 12 years. It is particularly notable that she was using her own judgement because at that time no sentencing guidelines for manslaughter were in force.
Since the current sentencing guidelines were introduced in 2018 something seems to have shifted. This month Clare Wade KC published her Independent Review into Domestic Homicide in which she found that in 97% of the strangulation cases she analysed, the perpetrator was male and in approximately half there was a history of domestic abuse and very often, non-fatal strangulation. But when it came to sentencing, in more than half of the cases there was no recognition that the method of killing aggravated the offence. Something she said needed to change.
Grazia has long understood that sexual violence between partners can fall below the radar and was a vital voice in the campaign that MPs like Harriet Harman and I led to outlaw the ‘rough sex defence’ in the Domestic Abuse Act, two years ago. And I went further by introducing a Private Members Bill in Parliament last year to ensure that perpetrators received proper punishment for these crimes.
This week, these proposals received official Government backing when the Ministry of Justice confirmed that it would formally ask the Sentencing Council to make changes to the guidelines to increase sentences for this category of crime (and would keep legislative options under review in the event they are needed). Put simply, this ought to see cases of this nature put into a higher category with a new starting point of eight years for manslaughter up to a potential maximum of life in the most serious cases.
Turning the tide on the normalisation of sexual violence is not easy and won’t happen overnight. But until it does we can at least treat these horrific crimes with the seriousness that they deserve.