Ministers pledge to prevent killers using '50 shades' defence in murder
Ministers have pledged to prevent alleged killers using the “fifty shades” defence of rough sex to counter murder charges.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Home Office are preparing to enshrine in law that consent cannot be used as a defence to actual bodily harm.
“We have committed to ensuring the law is clear that this ‘defence’ is unacceptable. We are looking at options on how to achieve this,” said the Ministry of Justice in a statement to The Daily Telegraph.
It will be debated today (Tues) as part of the Government's proposed new domestic abuse bill where three amendments have been put forward as options to prevent a defendant using a murder victim’s prior agreement to violent sex as an excuse for their subsequent death.
They are being submitted by a cross-party group of MPs including former deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman and the Conservative MP Mark Garnier.
The first would enshrine in law a House of Lords ruling, known as R v Brown, where a group of men who willingly engaged in sado-masochistic sex were convicted of wounding and assault despite their defence claims that it was consensual.
The second would require the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to be consulted before any decision was taken to reduce a charge from murder to manslaughter because of a defence of rough sex.
The third would give someone killed in a sex session the same right to anonymity in court as a living rape victim, a move that would ease the suffering of family or relatives forced to listen to lurid claims by the defence about the sex life of their deceased loved one.
At least 60 British women have been killed in episodes of so-called "consensual" sexual violence since 1972, with at least 18 women dying in the last five years, according to the advocacy group We Can't Consent To This.
In 45 per cent of those killings, the claim that a woman's injuries were sustained during a sex game "gone wrong" resulted in a lesser charge, a lighter sentence, an acquittal, or the death not being investigated, they say.
Earlier this year police criticised the “rough sex defence” in the trial of the killer of Grace Millane, the 21 year old Essex backpacker murdered in New Zealand, warning that the term “retraumatises” victims and their families.
Ms Harman, a former solicitor general, said failure to change the law would be a “missed opportunity” and it would not be enough simply to amend prosecution and sentencing guidance to prevent the defence being used.
“No one doubts the Government’s recognition of this problem and their commitment to tackling it but the stark reality is that nothing except legislation will stop this horrific crime,” she said. “We want it to be in statute alongside all the other measures on domestic violence.”
Mr Garnier has campaigned on behalf of Natalie Connolly, 26, whose killer, millionaire property developer John Broadhurst, was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence after insisting she had died because of rough sex she had consented to. He was jailed for less than four years.
“Her reputation was dragged through the mud,” said Mr Garnier. “This was quite brutal to the family. What we are trying to do is to find a way in which we can have anonymity for the victim in this type of case.”
During the election, Boris Johnson was asked by campaigners led by Ms Harman, Mr Garnier and Victims'Commissioner Dame Vera Baird to reintroduce the domestic abuse bill with an amendment outlawing the rough sex defence.
To which Mr Johnson replied: “Yes, absolutely – like many others I was frustrated that this bill couldn’t progress because of the gridlock in Parliament.
“If we are elected with a majority, we’ll bring this Bill back as soon as possible. I agree with Harriet Harman that the ‘50 shades defence’ is unacceptable and we’ll make sure the law is clear on this.”
