Millane cases parks review of payouts
JUSTICE: The UK Government is reviewing the compensation scheme for families of British people murdered outside the European Union, following the Grace Millane case.
The family of murdered Essex backpacker Grace will receive no compensation for her death since it happened in New Zealand.
THE UK Government is reviewing the compensation scheme for families of British people murdered outside the European Union, following the Grace Millane case.
The family of murdered Essex backpacker Grace will receive no compensation for her death since it happened in New Zealand.
Bereaved families of people murdered in the UK and in EU member states can apply for a compensatory payout, but there is no funding available in relation to Britons killed elsewhere.
According to the Sunday Express, the case of Ms Millane prompted Labour MP Jim Cunningham to ask what the Ministry of Justice was doing “to ensure families whose loved ones are murdered abroad have access to criminal injuries compensation”.
Justice minister Wendy Morton said a review of the UK system was taking place.
“A review of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is under way, looking at its scope, and eligibility rules and requirements,” Ms Morton was quoted by the Sunday Express as saying.
“The recommendations of the Victims’ Commissioner in her report on the entitlements and experiences of bereaved families following homicide abroad will be considered carefully as part of this review.”
Ms Morton said at present the only cases in which bereaved families could gain compensation for loved ones killed outside the EU involved victims of terrorism.
Ms Millane was strangled in Auckland almost a year ago.
A jury in Auckland found a 27-year-old New Zealander guilty of her murder following a threeweek trial.
The killer tried to insist he accidentally fatally throttled his victim during consensual rough sex.
It has led to a campaign calling for a change in the law to stop the increasing use of the “rough sex gone wrong” court defence used by men accused of murdering women.
Campaign group We Can’t Consent to says it has counted 59 women in the UK killed by men who have used the defence since 1972.
But 20 of those have come in the past five years, it says.
Activists believe the claim can potentially influence juries to decide murder cases should be reduced to a lesser charge like manslaughter or result in mitigation and lower sentences.
The group said: “The law in the UK should be clear. You cannot consent to serious injury or death.”
Sarah Green, the director of the End Violence Against Women coalition, told the Guardian: “Women monitoring femicides in the UK believe the so-called ‘rough sex defence’ is growing.
“It sets women up to be harmed in life and grossly insulted after their deaths.”
Professor Susan Edwards, a barrister who teaches law at the University of Buckingham, told the Guardian that strangulation should be made a stand-alone offence.
She said strangulation was the cause of death in around onethird of all spousal killings, adding: “Now there’s a burgeoning use of (rough sex excuses) because there’s greater acceptance of BDSM (bondage and sadomasochism) in relationships.”
We Can’t Consent to This was set up after John Broadhurst killed his girlfriend Natalie Connolly in 2016. He was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting manslaughter by gross negligence.
A review of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is under way. Wendy Morton, Justice Minister.