Dozens of women imprisoned for murdering their partners after violent, abusive relationships will seek to overturn their convictions, lawyers have said, after a wife jailed for bludgeoning her husband to death with a hammer won her appeal to secure a retrial.

Sally Challen’s murder conviction was quashed today and a retrial ordered by Court of Appeal judges after they heard she suffered four decades of controlling behaviour and humiliation at the hands of Richard Challen, her car dealer husband of 31 years, before killing him in August 2010.

The 65-year-old Police Federation office manager was sentenced to 22 years in prison following a trial at Guildford Crown Court, later downgraded to 18 years on appeal.

The Court of Appeal ruled that evidence from a psychiatrist that she was suffering from two mental disorders at the time of the killing undermined the safety of her conviction.

Harriet Wistrich, Mrs Challen’s lawyer, said there were “many more cases” of women whose years of abuse by their partners would merit a reassessment of their convictions. One has already been given leave to appeal.

“How many have been convicted for murder where they’ve killed someone abusing them?” said Ms Wistrich. “There are probably dozens of them.”