Wife’s relief over ‘rough sex’ killer’s jail review
THE wife of a man jailed for less than five years for choking a woman to death during ‘rough sex’ has spoken of her relief as he faces the prospect of a longer sentence.
Campaigners were outraged when Sam Pybus received a sentence of four years eight months for strangling mother-of-two Sophie Moss at her flat in Darlington, arguing that the light term trivialised violence against women.
Attorney General Suella Braverman announced last week that she had asked the Court of Appeal to review the sentence, saying it ‘appears unduly lenient’.
After the decision, Louise Pybus, who had joined campaigners in calling for her estranged husband’s jail term to be extended, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It’s a step in the right direction of sending a message out – when there is all this collective uproar about violence against women – that it’s not acceptable what Sam did.’
Ms Pybus, a 29-year-old teacher, added: ‘This is about getting justice for Sophie and her family and actually ending the rough sex defence.’
Her estranged husband had drunk 24 bottles of beer before strangling Sophie, 33, in February this year.
The 32-year-old claimed to have little recollection of what happened but said Sophie had ‘encouraged and enjoyed’ having pressure applied to her neck during their three-year liaison.
He was originally charged with murder but the Crown Prosecution Service later reduced the charge to manslaughter, and he was jailed at Teesside Crown Court last month.
The Attorney General’s decision came after former Labour Justice Minister Harriet Harman complained about the sentence. She said Pybus’s ‘disgraceful mitigation’ that Sophie encouraged strangulation during sex made it sound as if it was ‘her fault’.
Ms Pybus, who is studying for a PhD in linguistics, claimed there is ‘institutional sexism’ in police forces across the country and suggested they had treated Sophie, who had mental health and alcohol problems, like a ‘second-class citizen’.
She added: ‘I feel with Sam’s case that they just took his narrative and then found the evidence to support him, then investigated Sophie’s past rather than him.’