Abuse victims can use disproportionate force to defend themselves, say lawyers

 

Magson stabbed Mr Knight at her Leicester home on Mar 27, 2016, after both had been drinking and Mr Knight had also taken cocaine, Knight was killed with a single stab wound to the heart. Magson, who was 23 at the time, alleged that Knight had been strangling her, so she used a steak knife to defend herself.

 

In a legal first, lawyers for Magson have told Appeal Court judges that domestic violence victims should be able to use "disproportionate force" when defending themselves – an option only accorded to homeowners protecting themselves from a burglar.

 

This defence was introduced by Parliament in an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, after Norfolk farmer Tony Martin was jailed for murder after he shot dead a teenage burglar. 

 

Mr Martin's offence was later reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and he was released in 2003.  The incident provoked a fierce debate over homeowners' right to defend themselves and their property.

 

It led the Association of Chief Police Officers to issue new guidelines stating a householder could use "reasonable force" to protect themselves. Now for the first time, the Court of Appeal will hear that the same defence should be applied to domestic abuse.

 

Magson's hearing comes after the victims' commissioner, Dame Vera Baird QC, urged the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to extend the burglary defence to domestic abuse. Magson had appealed against her conviction in 2016, but a retrial jury three years later did not accept her version and she was given the same 17-year minimum term.

 

However, the judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, said what happened on the night remained unclear.

 

Magson is being supported by the Centre for Women's Justice (CWJ), which also supported Sally Challen, whose 2011 conviction for murdering her abusive husband with a hammer was quashed in 2019 after her legal team showed her fragile mental health at the time following decades of coercive and controlling treatment.

 

Director of the CWJ, Harriet Wistrich, said: "The householder defence was introduced in recognition of the heightened level of fear that might be experienced where a person is confronted by an intruder or trespasser in their home, resulting in disproportionate force. We have campaigned to extend this defence to circumstances where a victim of domestic violence responds disproportionately, often with a weapon, to defend herself from a man who has used violence towards her in the past. We hope this appeal will help open the door to further statutory reform in this area and shine a light on the level of fear experienced by such victims."