Following on from previous work undertaken in Parliament on the Domestic Abuse Act, Laura has presented a Private Members Bill to Parliament that would amend the Sentencing Code to provide for a minimum sentence for cases of manslaughter which are sexually-motivated. The Sexually-motivated Manslaughter (Sentencing) Bill would address a body of case law concerning women killed in acts of extreme violence where the perpetrators have received (what the public would consider to be-) derisory sentences of 6 years or less by introducing a minimum sentence of 12 years.
The proposition of the Bill follows a number of recent cases where defendants have been convicted of manslaughter and received a sentence of six years or less because it has been determined to be a category C case for sentencing purposes – that they didn’t mean to cause serious harm - because the cases had a sexual context.
One of these includes the case of Sam Pybus, who was jailed for four years and eight months last September after choking his victim, Sophie Moss, to death during sex. He applied “prolonged” pressure her neck and admitted to manslaughter. The sentencing judge accepted the defendant did not intend to kill Ms Moss and an appeal to increase his sentence was rejected.
The Bill will receive a second reading on 25 November.