Mrs Challen admitted manslaughter but pleaded not guilty to murdering her husband on August 14, 2010 (Picture: PA)

A woman who killed her controlling and abusive husband, before being freed in a landmark case, says she still loves him but cannot explain why.

Georgina Challen, known as Sally, was jailed for life in 2011 for the murder of her abusive husband Richard, 61.

She has long insisted she only lashed out after years of humiliation at his hands.

Her conviction was quashed in February, due to her mental state at the time, and she had been due to face a second murder trial next month.


However prosecutors announced yesterday that they would not pursue a murder retrial.

Sally Challen will not face a retrial over the death of her husband Richard Challen in 2010 (Picture: PA)

Following the court hearing, Mrs Challen said she still loves her husband and ‘misses him dreadfully’.



Her voice cracking with emotion, she added: ‘I wish that none of this had ever happened’.

Mrs Challen had been sentenced to nine years and four months for manslaughter – but walked free due to time served.

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She thanked her family whom she said had ‘served my sentence with me’, adding: ‘Their support and visits have kept me going in what has been a long and terrible nine years.’

Mrs Challen also highlighted the plight of many other women in a similar situation, and called for them to be freed from prison.

Sally Challen was jailed for murdering her husband Richard with a hammer in 2010

The judge said Richard Challen, had ‘trapped and manipulated’ Georgina Challen (Picture: PA)

She said: ‘Many other women who are victims of abuse, as I was, are in prison today serving life sentences, and I know this because I’ve met them.

‘They have suffered abuse and other miscarriages of justice and should be serving sentences for manslaughter not murder.’

She added: ‘I can’t explain it. I suppose in a way I loved the “ideal” Richard. It doesn’t make any sense. I loved the person I wanted him to be I suppose.

‘I was 15 [when I met him]. He was charming – he would charm birds off a tree. He was a salesman…he was really convincing.’

Sally Challen with her son David who has campaigned for her release (Picture: PA)

She told the crowd outside the Old Bailey: ‘I’m just so happy I can now live my life again. It’s been a really long road and one I couldn’t see the light at the end of.’

Her son David, who has campaigned for her release for years, tweeted: ‘As a family we are overjoyed at today’s verdict and that it has brought an end to the suffering we have endured together for the past 9 years.

‘Our story has become the landmark case society needs to recognise the true severity of coercive control.’

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC told the Old Bailey that Mrs Challen’s manslaughter plea was accepted following a psychiatric report which concluded she was suffering an ‘adjustment disorder’.

Sally Challen, flanked by her sons James (left) and David (right) (Picture: PA)

Her new sentence means she will be on licence until next autumn.

Mr Justice Edis told her yesterday: ‘If you had not been ill, you would not have done it.

‘You had become dependent on him, despite years of controlling, isolating and humiliating behaviour by him to you.

‘You felt trapped and manipulated because you were trapped and manipulated.’

Challen, 65, says she suffered years of controlling and humiliating abuse before she killed 61-year-old Richard Challen (Picture: PA)

Mrs Challen’s barrister Clare Wade QC outlined various methods of abuse her husband used in order to belittle and control his wife over the decades.



The barrister said: ‘She had no separate life from the life she shared with her husband. There was a dearth of friends.

‘He threw food on the floor in anticipation of her friend and husband coming round in order they would have to cancel.

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‘He made humiliating comments about the defendant’s weight, not only to her but other people.

‘Her son recounts an incident when his girlfriend complimented the defendant that she had lost weight. Her husband said “You haven’t seen her naked”.

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