The Home Secretary has ordered a review into the “appalling case” of a woman who was killed by her husband during the first lockdown following criticism that his five-year sentence was too lenient.
Five years, so we know it wasn’t murder.
He was cleared of murder, having already pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and was sentenced to five years in jail.
OK. So, what’s the problem?
The case was cited by the victims’ commissioner and domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales on Sunday as they warned “a culture of misogyny throughout the criminal justice system” is potentially seeing men get away with more lenient sentences.
Dame Vera Baird QC and Nicole Jacobs are calling for an independent review for every domestic homicide.
They fear that men receive more lenient sentences and compared Williams’s sentence to the case of Sally Challen, 65, jailed for life in 2011 for bludgeoning her husband Richard to death.
Challen’s conviction was overturned, reclassified to manslaughter and sentenced to time served. Whether she would have got as much if manslaughter had been the original verdict is unknown but they sure as hell weren’t going to leave themselves open to compo claims by sentencing her to less than time served.
’…warned “a culture of misogyny throughout the criminal justice system” is potentially seeing men get away with more lenient sentences.’
The term ‘pussy pass’ has entered everyday discourse for absolutely no reason, then..?
Good to see that Vera Baird can pick up the cudgels for women even if she hasn’t always stooped to more demeaning tasks.
It’s International Wimmin’s Day today, so expect a deluge of similar craporola.
If they produce a report showing men get more lenient treatment than women it will be the ne plus ultra of cherry-picked, policy based evidence making.
Remember, a man who kills his wife is an evil callous brute. A woman kills her husband when she’s backed into a corner at the end of her tether with no other way out as a last desperate resort after years of suffering at the hands of her husband who was an evil callous brute.
If you bludgeon someone to death, it’s murder, isn’t it? Unless you say ‘Oops!’ afterwards, in which case manslaughter is the charge.
If I get another fucking Tweet telling me Covid affects women most I won’t be responsible for my actions.
As I keep pointing out lockdown might affect women most*, but Covid is about 2:1 when it comes to killing men.
*Always annoys me that these ‘women affected most’ forget that the family counts as an economic unit where all members are equally affected
Hey! Priti Patel ordered a review into the failure of Torfaen Council to be in contact in a case where the wife was in danger, not a review into the length of the prison sentence – that was a matter for the judges, not the Home Secretary.
From what I’ve seen, nowadays, that’s ‘murder but I was drunk or a [insert protected minority here], yer honor’ in the UK. And the bleeding hearts buy it every time.
As well as her conviction being overturned didn’t a judge also decided she could stay the main beneficiary of his will as the kids didn’t want to dispute it