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UK: Sara Thornton granted appeal

01 May 1995

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Sara Thornton has won an important victory in her five year campaign to have her conviction, for killing her violent alcoholic husband, referred back to the Court of Appeal. The Home Secretary, Michael Howard, (who refused to reopen the case in August 1993), granted her appeal in, what is widely seen as, an attempt to pre-empt a High Court application for judicial review of his original decision. Ms Thornton is serving a life sentence in Holloway Prison for killing her abusive ex-policeman husband. She had sought help from friends, her doctor and solicitor, the police, Alcoholics Anonymous and a psychiatrist before she stabbed him to death. He was due to appear in court for attacking her when she killed him. Her case attracted widespread sympathy when she went on hunger-strike after learning that the court where she was jailed had given a man, convicted of the manslaughter of his drunken wife, a two year suspended sentence. Her solicitor, Gareth Peirce, said that Ms Thornton's case had "provoked for the first time an awareness and understanding of the issues that surround domestic violence". Guardian 5.5.95

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