Sally Challen has had her murder conviction quashed in landmark ruling

Mrs Challen hit husband Richard, 61, with hammer 20 times at home in 2010

She was jailed for 22 years in 2011, later reduced to 18 years after an appeal

Case was launched based on 2015 coercive control law on abusive behaviour

But judges accepted evidence that she was suffering from mental disorders

Application for bail was rejected so she will remain in prison ahead of retrial

Family wanted conviction downgraded to manslaughter so she could go free

Son David, 31, said result gave her a shot at freedom and thanked supporters

Sally Challen, pictured, has had her murder conviction overturned after a landmark appeal that saw her argue she was driven to kill her husband due to decades of psychological abuse

A wife convicted of murdering her husband after bludgeoning him to death with a hammer wept as she won a landmark appeal against her conviction today.

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Sally Challen, 65, whose real name is Georgina, battered her husband Richard, 61, to death at the couple's £1million Surrey home in 2010 by hitting him 20 times with the weapon as he ate breakfast.

She was jailed for murder a year later, with an initial 22-year sentence reduced to 18 years on appeal.

A panel of judges quashed that decision based on psychiatric evidence that she was suffering from two mental disorders at the time of the attack.

But they did not downgrade the conviction to manslaughter as the family had hoped, which would have seen her walk free.

Instead they ordered a retrial, although an application for bail was rejected meaning she will remain in prison.

The announcement of Challen's retrial is a watershed moment for 'coercive control' and domestic violence cases in Britain.

As Lady Justice Hallett took the court through the decision, Mrs Challen was seen wiping away tears on videolink from prison, while applause erupted throughout the packed courtroom when the ruling was announced, although it was followed by a loud gasp at the news of a retrial.

Speaking outside court, Mrs Challen's son David, 31, who has campaigned for her freedom for years alongside brother James, 35, said the result gave his mother a 'shot at the freedom she has never had since she was 15', the age when she met her future husband.

Challen, right, killed husband Richard, 61, left, in 2010 after bludgeoning him with a hammer 20 times as he ate breakfast at their Surrey home

Speaking outside court, Mrs Challen's son David, 31, who has campaigned for her freedom for years alongside brother James, 35, said the result gave his mother a 'shot at the freedom she has never had since she was 15', the age when she met her future husband

David Challen speaking today

It is currently unclear when the new trial will take place.

Psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead told the court that Mrs Challen was suffering from bipolar and dependent personality disorder disorders at the time of the killing, triggered by abuse, which undermined the safety of her conviction.

Lady Justice Hallett, sitting with Mr Justice Sweeney and Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said: 'The Court of Appeal heard that, in the opinion of a consultant forensic psychiatrist, the appellant was suffering from two mental disorders at the time of the killing.

'This evidence was not available at the time of the trial and and the court quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.'

After the ruling, David added: 'It's an amazing moment. The courts have decided that this case needs to be looked at again, as we have always said [it should be] as a family.

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'The abuse our mother suffered was never recognised properly and her mental condition was not taken into account.

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'As sons, we get another shot at our story to be heard and the events that led to our father's death to be heard and for our mother to have a right shot at freedom. A freedom she has never had since the age of 15.'

Mrs Challen had challenged her conviction following the introduction of a new law called coercive control, which came into force in 2015, four years after she was convicted.

How Sally Challen's case has come to a landmark hearing August 2010: Sally Challen bludgeons husband Richard, 61, to death with a hammer. The next day she drives to Beachy Head and threatens to kill herself only to be talked out of it by a chaplain. June 2011: Challen is convicted of murder and is jailed for 22 years a month later. November 2011: Challen's sentence is reduced to 18 years on appeal. December 2015: Coercive control is established in UK law, making it an offence to make someone feel controlled, dependent, isolated or scared. It can also be used as legal defense in domestic abuse cases. March 2018: Lawyers for Challen win the right to appeal her conviction after her sons David and James campaign with Justice for Women that she was 'driven to her actions' by coercive control. February 2019: Challen wins her case at the Court of Appeal and a retrial is ordered. Judges ruled she had been suffering from two mental disorders at the time of the killing which made the conviction 'unsafe'.

Experts told the Court of Appeal in London the law meant she would only be guilty of manslaughter if tried today.

Coercive control applies to behaviour that threatens, isolates or makes a person dependent through actions such as constant insults, destruction of property and cutting them off from friends and family.

Her lawyers argued she was driven to kill her husband after enduring 40 years of psychological and physical abuse, including rape, at his hands after they first met when she was 15 and he was 22.

Challen's sons James, 35, and David, 31, supported her release alongside campaigners from Justice for Women, claiming she snapped after living in a 'pressure cooker' of abuse.

On the day of his death, Mr Challen, 61, had told his wife she should not interrupt him when he was talking, not talk to strangers and quit smoking as part of an agreement drawn up to salvage their marriage.

But she battered him to death with a hammer after suspecting he was having an affair with a woman he met on the dating website Dinner Dates, jurors had heard.

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After killing her husband she wrapped up his body in a carpet and then drove it to Beachy Head the next day, where she was talked out of killing herself.

She denied murder on grounds of diminished responsibility but was handed a life sentence.

Clare Wade, barrister for Challen, said the court would not have considered coercive at the trial.

She said: 'Given developments in recent years, and particularly pre 2012,it is something that requires explanation.

She told the court that while it was once mentioned by a women's charity in 2006 it was not referred to prior to 2012 by policy makers.

She said: 'At the time the appellant was tried this is not something that would have been at the forefront of the minds of those trying her.

'It is difficult to decide if someone has been a victim of coercive control and in a trial the jury would need to be given evidence.'

Challen, pictured in a court sketch, wiped away tears as she appeared via videolink from prison at the Court of Appeal

Pictured: Challen and her husband on their wedding day. The couple's sons said their mother was subjected to years of controlling behaviour

Ms Wade said Challen's personality disorder symptoms were suppressed by the coercive control she suffered at the hands of her husband.

'She had a prior existing condition which meant that she was susceptible to coercive control and these symptoms did not emerge properly until the crisis happened, with which the trial was concerned.'

Ms Wade said Challen's trial in 2011 had focused on infidelity rather than other relevant evidence.

She said: 'What they did was they then adduced only evidence that went back to 2004.

'The evidence all focused on infidelity, her reactions to infidelity and the deceased's infidelity.

'The case was condensed down to something which in truth if all of her instructions and accounts were taken into account was not the case.'

Lady Justice Hallett asked Ms Wade: 'To get this straight in my mind, would a good working title be' psychological battered women syndrome?''.

Ms Wade said: 'Yes, absolutely.

Lady Justice Hallett said: 'There might be those out there who think this is appeal is all about coercive control but it's not.

'Primarily, it's about diagnosis of disorders that were undiagnosed at the time of the trial.'

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry told the court that in the 2011 trial Challen lied about having the hammer she used to kill her husband with her in order to break up furniture.

The prosecutor quoted Challen from the 2011 trial: 'I accept that this is not the real reason, my brother suggested I say that as it sounded better, something triggered me to take the hammer.'

Mr Challen, pictured, said the appeal was an opportunity for the court to recognise the 'lifetime of abuse' his mother suffered

Challen, pictured, threatened to kill herself at Beachy Head the day after she killed her husband

Challen, right, 65, was jailed for 22 years for murdering her husband Richard, left, 61, with a hammer in August 2010 but her sons David, 31, and James, 35, claim she was the victim of decades of abuse including rape and psychological torment by their father

Mr Challen, pictured, says his mother was unable to use the legal defence of 'coercive control' during her trial because it was only brought in to law in 2015

David told Good Morning Britain today, pictured, that society had let his mother down

Ms Carberry added: 'What triggered her was that she looked online at the profiles of two women that she believed her husband to have been involved with.'

'She said the thing that motivated me to take the hammer was something to do with Richard and how he had behaved towards me.

'She accepts that her motivation had been to harm him with the hammer.'

She told the court that expert evidence is not needed in areas which could be said to fall under the areas of 'human experience'.

The prosecutor said: 'It has long been held by this court that jurors do not need expert evidence in areas that are capable of being understood as part of human experience.

What is coercive control and when did it become a new law? In 2015 it became an offence under UK law to subject someone to 'coercive control'. The offence is defined as when someone with a personal connection makes one feel controlled, dependent, isolated or scared and causes a 'serious effect'. Examples of such behaviour include isolating a person from friends and family, monitoring a person's movements, controlling their money, continuous verbal abuse, threats of violence and damaging property. A serious effect is defined as having substantially impacted a person's daily life, changing the way they live or causing them to feel threatened by violence. The offence came into force in December 2015. Although a person who committed coercive control before then cannot be charged with it, it can be used to show bad character and support a general case of abuse.

She said that attitudes had moved forward from the late 1980s and early 1990s by the time of the 2011 trial.

Yesterday the court heard from several psychology experts who said coercive control can leave a person feeling trapped and feeling like a 'prisoner of war'.

It was also suggested she had been inspired to launch the appeal after hearing characters on BBC radio show The Archers go through a similiar experience.

The storyline in 2016 in the Radio 4 soap followed Helen Archer after she stabbed husband Rob when he repeatedly used tactics to make her doubt her own sense of reality.

Questioning consultant psychiatrist Dr Paul Gilluley yesterday, Mrs Challen's barrister Clare Wade QC read a psychiatric assessment of her while she was in custody.

It said: 'I wonder if she has been listening to this programme on Radio 4 about the woman who has been brainwashed by her husband and ends up killing him.'

Mrs Wade said: 'The significance of The Archers story is that it was about coercive control.'

But Dr Gilluley, a forensic psychiatrist who assessed Mrs Challen twice on behalf of the prosecution in 2011, added he still does not believe she was suffering a mental disorder when she killed her husband.

On the case, Dr Gilluley said: 'At the relevant time it is my opinion that she was not suffering any mental disorder at the time of the offence.

'This was based on her own account and from others about how she was doing in her day to day functioning.'

Dr Tim Exworthy, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told the High Court he gave evidence about about the state of the marriage during her trial in 2011.

He told the court that he had met Mrs Challen on three occasions and said: 'I had access to her GP records from 1970 to July 2010.

'I picked up that the relationship had been generally good, but she related an episode dated from 1987. She was concerned about her husband's infidelity.

'She said she challenged her husband as to where he had been and he simply replied he was' not prepared to discuss it'.

Sally Challen pictured on her wedding day

Sally met husband Richard when she was just 15 and her sons said the psychological torment started soon after

Challen, pictured with one of her sons as a child, should have been afforded more legal protection at her original trial, according toher family

Referring to the physical side of their relationship, Dr Exworthy said: 'She told me that their sex life was fine.

'She said that he decided when sexual activity took place and that it was always on his terms and that it was satisfactory, but only sometimes.

'She said she would do anything to make him happy and to avoid arguments. She said he was not an attentive father and had opted out.'

Dr Exworthy told the court that from their meetings he concluded Mrs Challen suffered from depressive disorder.

But he said he was not aware of the concept of coercive control in 2011.

'Driven to kill': The brutal killing that shocked suburbia Richard Challen, 61, was sitting down to eat breakfast when his wife Sally bludgeoned him in the head 20 times with a hammer at their £1million Surrey home. The mother of two then stuffed a cloth in his mouth to stop him breathing, wrapped his body in an old curtain and left a note saying 'I love you, Sally'. It brought to an end a tumultuous marriage during which their sons claimed their father subjected her to decades of abuse, including rape. The couple met when she was just 15 and he was 22, and soon married. But Challen accused her husband of cheating and even once caught him in a brothel, despite his claims she was 'mad'. Although she left him several times, shortly before his death she asked him to take her back. He agreed on condition she signed a humiliating postnuptial agreement with clauses that stripped her of financial assets, banned her from smoking and prevented her from 'interrupting him'. Her sons claim it was such controlling behaviour that drove their mother to kill him. But at her trial prosecutors claimed she acted out of jealousy after learning he was seeing a woman from an online dating site. Although she denied murder claiming diminished responsibility, she was found guilty in June 2011 and was jailed for life a month later.

The psychiatrist said he was not aware of Ms Challen suffering any manic episodes when he wrote his initial report stating that he believed her to suffer from a depressive disorder.

The court was told Dr Exworthy had conceded at the 2011 trial that any mental disorder Ms Challen may have had must have been mild as she was highly functional at the time of the killing - the earliest recorded hypomanic episode that she had suffered was in 2014.

But he believed that the concept of coercive control would have been useful at the time.

Yesterday her son David appeared on Good Morning Britain where he claimed 'society had let his mother down' as a victim of domestic abuse.

He said: 'We let victims of domestic violence down as well.

'She should have been afforded protections. If we all had that language she wouldn't be in this position. We lost a father as well – people forget that. We all acknowledge, could we have done more?'

He added: 'Our mother deserve the right to freedom she never had that right it was stolen from her. As sons we deserve rights to the recognition of the acts that led to our father's death. We have to recognise that.'

David added his father would 'gaslight' his mother and tell her she was 'mad' when she accused him of infidelity, even when she caught him at a brothel.

He said it was also impossible to argue with his father and he was 'like Teflon' because no one could make anything 'stick' against him.

Challen tried to leave him many times and even started divorce proceedings on several occasions but eventually asked him to take her back, after which he forced her to sign a 'humiliating' postnuptial agreement stripping her of financial assets and banning her from smoking.

Both brothers have spoken of how their campaign has been exhausting.

In a joint statement ahead of the appeal, the brothers said: 'Our mother's appeal is a landmark case, the first of its kind to use coercive control as a part of a defence to murder.

'This appeal crucially provides an opportunity to recognise the lifelong abuse Sally suffered and, in the hope of understanding the cause of her actions, provides an understanding of how she was driven to take the life of our father, Richard.'

At her 2011 trial at Guildford Crown Court, Challen, of Claygate, Surrey, admitted killing the former car dealer but denied murder, claiming diminished responsibility.

The prosecution case was that it was the action of a jealous woman who suspected infidelity.

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The appeal was heard by Lady Justice Hallett, Mr Justice Sweeney and Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.