Coercive controlling partners now facing up to 10 years in jail

People who use coercive control to abuse their partners could face up to 10 years in jail under a government review that reported a six-fold increase in offences in just four years.

The review was told by judges, police and frontline specialists that the current maximum sentence of five years was inadequate for the long-term emotional damage that could be caused by years of a partner’s coercive or controlling behaviour.

There was also evidence of significant under-reporting with such behaviour often only coming to light when police were called to deal with violence within households.

Prosecutors were then often bringing charges for other violent offences in a bid to bump up the potential jail term from the current limit of five years for coercive control.

Coercive behaviour has been brought to the fore by a series of high-profile cases including ITV weather presenter Ruth Dodsworth, who was subjected to a nine-year campaign of controlling behaviour, harassment and stalking by her husband.

Jonathan Wignall, 54, was jailed for three years for behaviour towards his partner that included cutting her off from family and friends, accusing her of having affairs, using her fingerprint to access her phone while she was asleep, turning up at her places of work, and following her to the bathroom to stand outside.

Former Wales football manager and player Ryan Giggs was last month charged with assault and controlling or coercive behaviour against his ex-girlfriend, PR executive Kate Greville, 36. Mr Giggs is currently on bail, and will plead not guilty to the charges, which relate to an incident at his home in Worsley, east Manchester.

The review found the number of controlling or coercive behaviour (CCB) offences rose from 4,246 in 2016/17 to 24,856 in 2019/20. Yet, just six per cent resulted in a prosecution, down from 11 per cent in the same period.

Despite the difficulty in bringing cases to court, the report found strong support for increasing the maximum sentence for those found guilty from five to ten years.

This would bring it in line with the current maximum sentence for stalking, "based on the potential severity of coercive and controlling behaviour which may include both physical and non-physical violence over an extended period".

Judges told researchers “the sentence length of controlling and coercive behaviour did not reflect the severity of the offence in some cases, which can involve multiple types of abuse over a number of years, and therefore in some cases warrants a greater sentence than physical abuse alone.”

Most prosecutions involving coercive behaviour were for cases where there were other offences, such as violence.

“It may indicate CCB is more likely to be reported or identified by the police when another offence occurs, or it could suggest that prosecutors may decide to charge CCB alongside another offence to not limit the potential custodial sentence length to the maximum sentence of five years for CCB.”

The review said bringing coercive and controlling people to justice was a “significant challenge” because it often did not involve violence which could be more easily evidenced.

Although the conviction rate for prosecutions had risen from 38 per cent in 2016 to 60 per cent in 2018, it had fallen back to 52 per cent in 2019.

The review said official crime survey data suggested only a “small part” of coercive behaviour was uncovered by police.

Academic studies, it said, had specific examples of missed opportunities by police to record coercive behaviour, which made it vital for officers to have appropriate training and resources.