DEVOTED WIFE JUST SNAPPED Hell hath
When Sally Challen killed her husband of 31 years in August 2010 it seemed like a simple case of jealousy. She had recently reunited with Richard, 61, after a brief separation. Then, after hearing a voicemail left by another woman asking him out for dinner, Sally marched over to her husband’s house and bludgeoned him to death with a hammer.
Afterwards she wrapped his body in a curtain and placed a note on top. It read: “I love you.”
Sally admitted manslaughter at Guildford crown court but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
In June 2011, she was convicted of murder and jailed for 22 years after the judge said that Sally was “eaten up with jealousy”.
Case closed. Or was it?
When human rights lawyer Harriet Wistrich took up Sally’s case, the horrifying truth about the marriage came tumbling out.
Sally wasn’t simply a jealous wife. She had been controlled and abused by her husband for decades – and she’d finally snapped.
Richard bullied and belittled Sally and would control their money and who she socialised with while he flaunted d his affairs and liaisons ons with prostitutes. .
The couple e separated i n
2009 but Sally struggled on her own and agreed to o reunite.
On the day of f the murder, Sally, now 66, admits Richard’s behaviour became too much to bear.
She said: “On that Saturday, Richard was insistent I go out in the pouring rain to the supermarket. I suspected it was so he could
HAPPY: Sally and Richard on their wedding day
I don’t know why I had the hammer in my bag
phone the woman he was dating. It all became clear that he was playing a game and something flipped inside my head.
“That’s when I picked up the hammer and hit him over the head repeatedly.
“I don’t know why I did it. I don’t know why I had the hammer in my bag.”
When the truth came out, Sally’s sons David and James stood by her and campaigned for her appeal. In 2015, coercive control became a criminal offence and, in February 2019, Sally’s murder conviction was overturned. It was later reduced to manslaughter and she was released from prison in June 2019.
SECRETS: Couple hug on holiday
CAMPAIGN: Son David