The true story of why one woman killed her husband of four decades in a landmark case that changed the legal system
The true story of why one woman killed her husband of four decades in a landmark case that changed the legal system
The true story of why one woman killed her husband of four decades in a landmark case that changed the legal system
David Challen grew up in the perfect house with the model family of 2.5 children. David Challen also grew up in a household ruled by his father's manipulations and mind games.On a Saturday in 2010, his fearful mother struck twenty blows to the back of her husband's head with a hammer after four decades of abuse. Then, she turned back to the stove she had been cooking his lunch on and turned off the gas, washed the dirty dishes and left the house to jump off a cliff. In those few minutes, she changed the legal system and the lives of countless women across the country.David Challen is a domestic abuse campaigner. He successfully campaigned to free his mother in a landmark appeal recognising the lifetime of coercive control she suffered. David continues to speak out against violence against women and is a Prison Advice and Care Trust Ambassador (PACT).
"On a Saturday morning in August 2010 my mother, Sally Challen, killed my father, Richard, at the family home with twenty blows of a hammer to the head. She was sentenced to life behind bars after suffering 40 years of abuse." David Challen grew up in a household that was accustomed to his father's abuse and coercive behaviour - his criticisms, humiliations, manipulations and mind games. As David grew older, he realised there was something deeply wrong with the way his father treated their mother, Sally. Though she eventually left him, it was only weeks later that she murdered her husband of 31 years, leaving David with the most unimaginable moral dilemma: defending his mother. CONTROL tells the story of the abuse Challen unknowingly witnessed throughout his childhood, the coercive control that led to his mother, Sally Challen, killing his father, and the subsequent "trial that changed everything for women".
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