UK: Women conviction for killing husband quashed

A woman who killed her husband in a hammer attack after saying she suffered “decades of abuse” has won an appeal to have her murder conviction quashed.

Sally Challen, 65, of Claygate, Surrey, admitted killing 61-year-old Richard in August 2010 but denied murder. She will now face a retrial.

She was convicted in June 2011 and ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years, later reduced by four years on appeal.

Lawyers had asked the Appeal Court to reduce her conviction to manslaughter.

The conviction was overturned by three judges who said the evidence of a psychiatrist, that Mrs Challen was suffering from two mental disorders at the time of the killing, was not available at the trial and undermined the safety of her conviction.

Sally and Richard Challen had two sons and had been married for 31 years

Mrs Challen, who appeared at the appeal via a video link from HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, was visibly emotional as she was told the decision.

Relatives and supporters in the public gallery also cheered and applauded.

The two-day hearing followed a high-profile campaign by Mrs Challen’s sons David, 31, and James, 35.

Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice, David said: “It’s an amazing moment. The courts have acknowledged that this case needs to be looked at again, as we have always said as a family.

“The abuse our mother suffered, we felt, was never recognised properly and her mental conditions were not taken into account.

“Her sons will get another shot for the events that led to our father’s death to be heard, and for our mother to have another shot at freedom.”