A mother who bludgeoned her abusive husband to death in a hammer attack has revealed that she “still loves him” after walking free from court.

Georgina Challen, known as Sally, 65, said she killed 61-year-old Richard Challen in the kitchen of their Surrey home in August 2010 after decades of being coerced and humiliated by him. She had been in prison for almost a decade.

However, following a string of unprecedented legal wranglings at the country’s highest courts, Mrs Challen finally walked out of the Old Bailey as a free woman after Mr Justice Edis sentenced her to nine years and four months in jail - time she has already served in custody.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) today accepted her plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

“I still love Richard and I wish that none of this had happened,” she said in an emotional press conference, flanked by her family, legal team and the Justice for Women campaign group.

She described her ordeal as a “long road” and said that her family “served my sentence with me”, adding: “Many other women who are victims of abuse and violence are in prison today serving life sentences, and I know this because I have met them.