Woman freed after killing husband.

'I still love him'. 'I miss him terribly'.

An abused woman who killed her husband with a hammer will not face a retrial after prosecutors accepted her manslaughter plea.

Sally Challen, 65, was found guilty of murdering 61-year-old Richard in Surrey and jailed for life in 2011.

Her conviction was quashed in February and she had been due to face a second murder trial next month.

Instead, she has been sentenced to nine years and four months for manslaughter - but walked free due to time served.


Mr Justice Edis said the killing came after "years of controlling, isolating and humiliating conduct" with the added provocation of her husband's "serial multiple infidelity".

Mrs Challen, from Claygate, who never denied killing her husband, said she had suffered decades of emotional abuse from her former car dealer husband.

hadn't they parted...…...lucky woman who probably should still be behind bars

he was trying to dupe her out of her share of the house  ,hence the meeting up  ...  poor woman went through enough i think plus spend the last 8 years behind bars

But should  it have been the lead item on BBC news?

yes ,because it's a landmark case

coach...……..she hit him 20 times with an hammer......that's murder not manslaughter

it is murder   ...and she should and did serve time  .... but there have to be different sentencing passed  for a variety of reasons  ...even her sons appealed

When she left the house she was living in she had the hammer in her handbag to visit the husband in the former marital home. It was reported that she was unhappy living on her own and wanted a reconciliation. She served breakfast and, as the husband ate, she took a hammer and hit him more than 20 times. In case he was still breathing, she stuffed a tea towel into his mouth, before wrapping him in some old curtains. She wrote a note that said “I love you, Sally” and placed it on Richard’s body. I would not have been surprised to see her freed under grounds of diminished responsibility (after serving eight years in prison), but do not understand how it could be classed as manslaughter.

It was murder, plain and simple.  If a man had done exactly the same thing he would have been hanged in days gone by. 

It is now open season for women to kill their husbands - chit chatters beware

Didn't need to be a man to be hanged in days gone by, but I'm with you annie; this was murder in my eyes too

Am I getting day jar view? I'm sure I saw this thread a few weeks ago, but all the dates are today! Wi fecking erd.

Jun 7, 2019 -- 7:22PM, annie. wrote:

It was murder, plain and simple.  If a man had done exactly the same thing he would have been hanged in days gone by.  It is now open season for women to kill their husbands - chit chatters beware

she was bullied by him Annie

not saying he deserved  that outcome but  if you spend years bullying and controlling and someone finally  snaps  then it's not surprising   ...she spend time behind bars      but she didn't deserve a life sentence

Mr Justice Edis said the killing came after "years of controlling, isolating and humiliating conduct" with the added provocation of her husband's "serial multiple infidelity".

"You felt trapped and manipulated because you were trapped and manipulated," he told Mrs Challen.

You know what, I think I know the remedy for this - DIVORCE

If she had been living with him at the time and in the middle of a row she had picked up a knife and killed him after years of documented physical abuse there could have been a case for manslaughter.  But she had left him and was living apart from him. She went to see him carrying a hammer in her bag and then when his back was turned smashed over the head over twenty times.  If this is not premeditated murder I don't know what is.

thats not so good annie....     yes she should have  walked away and stayed away but he was trying to fleece the poor lady   ...besides he was a bully  and made her life hell  .  if you live by the sword

It was about money ?  Is that why he committed suicide ,tbh as soon as I heard he was in the motor trade I knew he was guilty .

suicide??

she was the one about to commit suicide breadandbutter ...she was talked down from Beach head

She should never have been locked.
She should been given a few grand for services to the community.

murder all day long for me.. shes done 8 years already tho.. convicted murderers are often out within 9 years anyway.

Another quite staggering decision from the badly-named UK Justice System.