In 2011, Harriet Wistrich got a call about Sally Challen, who had been convicted of the murder of her husband, Richard. Sally had bludgeoned him to death with a hammer at their Surrey home and driven to Beachy Head in Sussex with the aim of jumping off the cliff (she was talked down by suicide prevention negotiators). Challen’s family felt her defence team had failed to highlight Richard’s abusive behaviour towards Sally. In court she had been painted as a jealous wife, enraged by her husband’s infidelities.
At first, Wistrich, a lawyer specialising in human rights cases, struggled to see how she might help Challen, whose defence of diminished responsibility had already been rejected by a jury. Appealing against a criminal conviction without fresh evidence is no easy task. But, talking to Challen in prison, Wistrich was able to build a detailed picture of Richard’s campaign of abuse, which included gaslighting, sexual violence, isolating his wife from friends and family and withholding money. At the time, parliament was debating legislation that would recognise coercive control, an insidious form of abuse where perpetrators exert their power over victims through intimidation, humiliation and punishment. Here, Wistrich realised, was “a new framework for interpreting the dynamics of an abusive relationship. It was like placing a powerful new lens in front of existing facts and everything suddenly becoming clear”.
