Abused wife can inherit estate from husband she beat to death
A woman who beat her husband to death with a hammer after suffering years of mental abuse has won the right to inherit his £1 million (NZ$2m) estate.
The High Court ruling means that Sally Challen, whose murder conviction was quashed and replaced with a guilty plea for manslaughter last year, is entitled to receive all her husband’s assets, including the proceeds of the sale of the marital home.
However, Challen told the court that she sought no personal gain from the waiver but wanted to recoup the inheritance tax paid by her two sons.
In 2010 Challen battered Richard,
61, as he ate a meal at their home in Claygate, Surrey. She covered his body and left a note that said: ‘‘I love you, Sally.’’
In the latest stage of the traumatic and controversial case, a judge ruled yesterday that normal rules, which state that people have to forfeit any inheritance from a person they have killed, should be waived in Challen’s circumstances. At a High Court hearing in Bristol, Judge Paul Matthews said he was ‘‘quite satisfied that the justice of this case requires that I should disapply the forfeiture rule’’.
However, the judge cautioned that his ruling should not set a broad template for future cases, adding: ‘‘Every case must be decided on its own merits. I emphasise that the facts of this terrible case are so extraordinary, with such a fatal combination of conditions and events, that I would not expect them easily to be replicated in any other.’’
In June last year Challen, 65, walked free from the Old Bailey in London after prosecutors told the court that they would accept a plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Four months earlier three Court of Appeal judges had quashed her 2011 conviction for murder. She had spent nine years in jail but was released immediately. At that time a retrial was expected.
The appeal court had been told that Challen spent 40 years with her husband, whose occupations included estate agent and luxury car salesman. She had endured persistent abuse in the form of coercive and controlling behaviour as well as being raped.
Lawyers have predicted that the quashing of her murder conviction could lead to dozens of appeals from other women convicted of killing their abusive partners. After her release, Challen, who at the time still wore a wedding ring, said that she still loved her husband. ‘‘I miss him dreadfully and I wish none of this had happened,’’ she said in a statement. ‘‘I will always love Richard, he is part of me. I can’t explain it. In a way I love the ideal of Richard . . . the person I wanted him to be. I’ve had therapy to try and explain it.’’
Charisse Crawford, partner and head of the inheritance and trust disputes team at Stephens Scown, the firm that acted on behalf of Challen, said: ‘‘She has been through so much and this judgment will give her sons and their families some financial security as they rebuild their lives.’’ – The Times