Groundbreaking coercive control appeal gives hope to wife convicted of murdering husband

She was described as a wife ‘eaten up with jealousy’  by the Judge who convicted her of murder.

Eight years ago, Sally Challen took a hammer to her husband Richard and beat him to death, before trying to end her own life. She’s serving an 18-year sentence.

Now she has won the leave to appeal against her murder conviction in a couple of months, on the grounds that she had suffered from the ‘coercive and controlling behaviour’ of her husband. A new law that became a criminal offence four years after her conviction.

Anja Popp has been to meet her son, who is fighting to overturn the conviction.