Campaigners have welcomed the decision by the government to finally address the rising number of killers claiming the “rough sex” defence.
A growing number of women have been seriously injured or killed during incidents of “sex games gone wrong”. In 1996 the figure on average was two women per year killed or injured through what defendants claimed was “consensual rough sex”. By 2016 the figure stood at 20.
The government has now added a new clause to the landmark domestic abuse bill to eliminate “consent for sexual gratification” as a defence where the defendant has caused serious harm.
We Can’t Consent To This, an organisation that has extensively researched the “rough sex” defence, has campaigned for changes to the law alongside MPs Harriet Harman, Mark Garnier, and Laura Farris.
The organisation revealed that in the last decade 67 victims were made to go to court to deny that they consented to strangulation, assault, or be subjected to violence.
According to guidelines drawn up by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), non-fatal strangulation should be tried as serious assault, but in reality, this often does not happen. When a man kills a woman during sex and alleges she gave consent, in 45% of cases the “rough sex” defence succeeds. This leads to the killing being prosecuted as manslaughter or even not as a crime.
Founder of the campaigning group, Fiona Mackenzie, said: “I’m so proud of us, of what we have done. Some of us knew women who’ve been killed and were determined to not let what happened to their friend happen again. For nearly 50 years, the criminal justice system has failed so many women — it’s in all of their honour that we have fought this.”
“We will keep going, this isn’t law yet, and will apply only in England and Wales: Scotland and Northern Ireland must be next. And we’ll continue to generate analysis and influence policy to improve outcomes for women: there is so much still to do.”
