The government has announced plans to overhaul murder sentencing for domestic killers who commit strangulation, in response to the findings of the Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review.
In a statement this morning, the lord chancellor also said that the Law Commission will conduct a ‘wholesale review’ of homicide sentencing, examining issues like aggravating and motivating factors.
These plans are the latest in a series of changes made by the government to ‘halve violence against women and girls’, including the appointment of domestic abuse ‘specialists’, a new stalking law, and ‘anti-spiking’ legislation.
Currently, strangulation as a form of non-fatal abuse is governed by three pieces of legislation: the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, the Serious Crime Act 2015, and the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
In the most serious, non-fatal cases, these crimes carry a custodial sentence of up-to five years imprisonment - with aggravating factors like domestic abuse and sexual motivation all taken into consideration.
If the victim is killed in an attack, then the crime is tried under ordinary homicide legislation, carrying a minimum life sentence. Today’s announcement will require judges to consider the use of strangulation as a specific method of murder, and the relationship between the victim and the attacker, during sentencing.
Comment by Marcus Johnstone: ‘These Cases are Broad and Complex, and Require a Broader and More Complex Solution’
‘In recent years, violent crimes against women have increased exponentially. This should concern us all.
These crimes are abhorrent, and tougher sentences are needed. I welcome the lord chancellor’s announcement.
But the causes of this phenomenon are broad and complex, and therefore require a broader and more complex solution than just more legislation.
In my experience as a criminal defence solicitor specialising in sexual offences, I often deal with cases of domestic abuse and sexual strangulation. Very rarely are alleged offenders simply ‘bad people’, or their crimes thoughtfully premeditated.
The prevalence of violent pornography, mental health disorders, and a failure to deal with offenders before their violence escalates, are all contributory factors. Many of these cases are sexual, involving ambiguities around consent. In these instances, ‘accidental death’ as a result of unpleasant but lawful sexual practices can occur, or can at least be used by perpetrators as a legal defence.
In other cases, murders like these are often part of a long pattern of escalatory behaviour, coming after a protracted period of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse.
As the government has rightly identified, tough sentencing alone is largely useless once the crime has been committed; the victim is already dead, and few perpetrators of these crimes ever think about the prison time they will face before they commit the act.
Victims seldom report, violence is difficult to prove, and it is only once a death has taken place that these criminals are actually arrested and prosecuted.
In my view, the faster prosecution of perpetrators of non-fatal abuse can serve to get prospective killers off-the street - but this only works when victims are willing to report, and if the justice system can process these prosecutions quickly. Unfortunately, this is very rarely the case.
Domestic Abuse Protection Notices face the same challenges. Issuing these orders, intended at restricting contact between abuser and victim, achieves little when dealing with the pathologically violent or obsessed. Indeed, they achieve even less when you consider the length of time for applications and appeals, which can take in-excess of two months. In cases like these, speed is always of the essence - and speed is something the criminal justice system simply does not have.
It is right for the Law Commission to review this part of the law, but I hope that their review is holistic. Sentences need to be considered, but that is just one small part of the problem. After all, perpetrators of these crimes are already liable for life sentences - and yet the number of these crimes only continues to increase.’
Marcus Johnstone
Solicitor & Managing Director
Marcus is a solicitor and managing director of PCD Solicitors, a nationwide criminal defence firm specialising in defending false allegations of sexual crimes.