Farieissia Martin stabbed her ex-partner during a row at her home in Liverpool in 2014

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

A 26-year-old mother of two serving a life sentence for stabbing her children’s father to death has won the first stage of an attempt to overturn her murder conviction.

Farieissia Martin stabbed Kyle Farrell, 21, through the heart with a kitchen knife at her home in Dingle, Liverpool, in November 2014, during a row that began after she returned late from a friend’s house.

She claimed to have acted in self-defence after Farrell turned violent. But after a two-week trial in June the following year, a jury took just an hour and a half to find her guilty of murder and she was jailed for a minimum term of 13 years.

Now three judges at the court of appeal in London have agreed to allow Martin to bring a full challenge to her conviction after her lawyers told them is fresh medical evidence relating to her mental state at the time of the killing.

When Farieissia was arrested, she had initially lied about the events of the evening, and tried to dispose of the knife, behaviour which counted against her in her original trial.

But, as a recent Guardian article described, she had also suffered a series of assaults at the hands of her partner, and her defence during her original trial failed to highlight the history of violence in the relationship and assess her mental health.

A forensic psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist have both concluded that Martin was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic amnesia at the time of the killing, substantially impairing her ability to exercise self control, Clare Wade QC told the appeal court on Tuesday morning.

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Wade said the domestic abuse Martin suffered during the course of their five-year relationship included outbursts of jealousy, physical violence, insults and gaslighting.

Farrell also isolated her from family and friends, kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant and damaged her possessions, the court heard.

Had all that evidence been put before the jury at the 2015 trial, it would have made a “significant difference” to the way they considered the case, Wade told the court.

Wade said: “Coercive control consists of coercion, degradation and control. It is a form of abuse which focuses particularly on the specific vulnerabilities of the victim.

“And, although its role within the partial defences is a developing jurisprudence, it is this which gives it significance in the context of the partial defence of loss of control.”

Lady Justice Simler, sitting with Mr Justice Soole and Judge Martin Picton, said it is “arguable” that evidence about the mental disorders she had at the time of the killing would have affected the jury’s verdict.

The judge said: “We consider that it is arguable ... that the fresh evidence, if admitted at trial, would have had a substantial effect on the loss of control defence.

“The evidence of PTSD and dissociative behaviour would arguably have gone to the gravity of the trigger for loss of control.

“Had that evidence been available, there would have been medical evidence available at trial that would arguably have explained the moment of the stabbing, about which [Martin] herself could not give any explanation.”

She added: “It would also arguably have provided context for the lies she told in the immediate aftermath of the stabbing, and for all those reasons we consider it arguable that the evidence could have made a difference to the jury’s assessment ... of the partial defence of loss of control and could have supported diminished responsibility.”

Speaking outside court after the hearing, Martin’s parents Lyly Maughan and Leroy Martin said they hoped their daughter would now be given another chance and be able to put forward the new evidence.