Laurence Toczek reports on the problems obtaining a conviction for unlawful act manslaughter
- Suicide after domestic abuse.
- Conviction of abuser for manslaughter.
- Problems in obtaining a conviction.
On 29 April 2019, the Independent Office for Police Conduct released its report into the case of Justine Reece who killed herself in February 2017 after a prolonged campaign of harassment by her former partner who was jailed for ten years after pleading guilty to her manslaughter. Precise statistics are difficult to come by, but it seems certain that Ms Reece’s case is far from an isolated one. In 2018, a collaboration between Refuge and University of Warwick, School of Law involving a sample of more than 3,500 of Refuge’s clients resulted in a report entitled ‘Domestic abuse and suicide’. 24% of this sample had felt suicidal at one time or another, 18% had made plans to end their life and 3.1% had made at least one suicide attempt.
The type of manslaughter relied on by the prosecution in cases of this sort has been that of the unlawful and dangerous act variety.
