Centuries of common law precedents were overturned by Simon Brown in 1990 when, as a high court judge, he ruled that a husband could be found guilty of raping his wife. His decision that “there is no marital exemption to the law of rape” was upheld by the higher courts and confirmed in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Until then, the 250-year-old principle that a husband cannot be guilty of raping his wife “on account of the matrimonial consent which she has given, and which she cannot retract” was accepted in the courts.
Brown, who has died aged 86 of cancer, later told the House of Lords: “I have few boasts to my name by way of legal achievement, few jewels in my judicial crown, but I can … boast of being the first judge in this jurisdiction … to rule that a husband is not permitted in law to have intercourse with his wife quite simply whenever he chooses.”
