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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be incensed by this - WARNING: UPSETTING CONTENT.

108 replies

Wowzrr · 11/12/2018 17:48

How can this person be released on bail.

He got away with murder didn't he?

How could anyone believe his bullshit story?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6483171/Millionaire-property-developer-40-ADMITS-battering-girlfriend-death.html#article-6483171

OP posts:
Usernumbers1234 · 12/12/2018 13:52

No probs Calvin’s, emotive topic

BumbleBeee69 · 12/12/2018 13:52

He wanted to annihilate her after finding she was sending topless selfies to her Ex and another man. He was just biding his time, to wipe her existence. I believe this was premeditated. I believe this was Murder.

BlancheM · 12/12/2018 13:58

I agree Bumble it's just very convenient for him that it 'couldn't' be proven.

Calvinsmam · 12/12/2018 14:17

It’s such a scary thought.

That basically you could be raped, beaten, murdered and the person who did it could say ‘well she liked it dirty’
The fact they are allowed to use previous sexual activity that a woman participated in as a defence to her murder is disgusting.

It’s all so warped.

I don’t know if I can get the thought in my head to make sense, but basically young women are being taught that a bit of rough sex is normal, that strangulation is part of normal sex, that spanking and bdsm is all just part and parcel of having a sex life.
But then that rough sex can also be used as a defence in your murder case, so we are basically making our young women disposable.

If having rough sec is considered normal and rough sex is a defence in a murder trial then how many more of these are we going to see? How many more women’s abusers and killers will get reduced sentences because of this?

Chocolaterainbows · 12/12/2018 14:43

The world is a very scary place for women right now. I have no idea what the answer is. It's terrifying.

ConcreteUnderpants · 12/12/2018 15:15

Blanch I also staged a guess that the internal injuries were not fought over due to the poor woman being unconscious due to the alcohol.
Stating she was, "as dead as a doughnut" sums up his remorse/horror at finding an accidental death at the bottom of his stairs.

ChristineBaskets · 17/12/2018 17:14

He got three years and eight months. www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/17303170.john-broadhurst-jailed-for-manslaughter-of-natalie-connolly-in-kinver/

I'm so angry and disgusted about this, justice has not been done here. Poor woman, her poor family and most of all her daughter.

How has this happened? There is no mention of the prosecution appealing the sentence or even her family objecting to it. It's all so wrong 😡

SaveKevin · 17/12/2018 17:19

I couldn’t believe it when it pinged on my phone earlier. Three fucking years.

BlancheM · 17/12/2018 19:52

My god. So he'll be out in the blink of an eye then Angry

Ereshkigal · 17/12/2018 20:00

That is fucking appalling AngryAngryAngryAngry

Wowzrr · 17/12/2018 20:57

Just saw the report of the sentence.

He'll be out in less than 2 years.

WowAngry.

OP posts:
DangerMouse17 · 18/12/2018 07:20

I think I will write to the attorney general today. Disgusting sentence. Just because you've got 15 million in the bank, doesn't mean you should get away with something like this. 3yrs and so he will be out in 18mths or so....probably in a real cushy prison and with all the comforts his money can buy.

Aaaahfuck · 18/12/2018 07:28

Yet again it seems the way to get away with killing a woman is to claim it was part of sex. Heartbreaking for her and her family.

LakieLady · 18/12/2018 07:52

*This beggars belief considering there are S&M cases where the CPS have persued a case on the basis that a person can only consent to a certain level of pain. Cases in which no deaths occurred and no party involved in the events which causes injury wish to bring a claim.

If I recall correctly, all the injured parties in those cases were men, though. I may be misremembering there but if correct, it says it all really.*

Are you thinking of the gay sex S&M trial, in the late 80s/early 90s? If so, I think the convictions were overturned on appeal.

Madeline88 · 18/12/2018 07:54

I would request the court judgment. There is often a lot that the media doesn’t report.

LakieLady · 18/12/2018 08:07

This is about the case I was thinking of

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Spanner

Convictions overturned by the ECHR.

The Broadhurst case is shocking and I find it impossible to believe that someone would consent to injuries of that severity and nature.

And the sentence is just disgusting.

SleightOfMind · 19/12/2018 15:16

Harriet Harman MP is attempting to tackle the so called ‘50 Shades’ defence.
I’ve emailed her with more examples of women being killed by men and the claim of consensual rough sex being used to downgrade a murder charge to manslaughter. Especially those where the sentence appears very light and the evidence for the women voluntarily engaging in S&M practices with strangers is scant.

I’ve also emailed my MP but don’t hold out much hope of action from him Angry

Please do the same if you can. It’s so important we alert the justice system to this abhorrent loophole.
The poor families of these women - not only losing your loved one in such a violent and horrific way but to have lurid claims in the public domain, made by their killer attempting to get a reduced sentence.

Horrific.

arranbubonicplague · 20/12/2018 22:25

As ever, be aware that the detail here is very disturbing.

Letter from a research midwife who offers some commentary on the vaginal injuries in her own letter of protest to the Attorney General:

twitter.com/ThatMidwife/status/1075808892477693952

From FiLIA who are recommending that anybody who is concerned about this sentence should write to/email the AG.

FiLiA has a template letter for anyone who'd like a basis to adapt to their own protest.

If you believe the brutal murder of a woman deserves more than 3 years, 8 months in prison, write to the Attorney General to demand an appeal. You have only 28 days to register this complaint. You can send a letter by post to:
Attorney General
Geoffrey Cox QC
5-8 The Sanctuary
london
SW1P 3JS
or via e mail to:
[email protected]

If you need any help with wording, please cut, paste, amend and make the following your own and please share:

FAO Geoffrey Cox

I am writing to you to reconsider both the charge (manslaughter by gross negligence, rather than murder) and the subsequent sentencing of only 40 months of John Broadhurstat Birrmingham Crown Court. following his brutal killing of Natalie Connolly. Not only did she received over 40 injuries, but she was also callously left to die when perhaps medical intervention could have saved her life.

The so called mitigation of ‘rough sex gone wrong’ sets a dangerous precedent to excuse extreme violence against women. I therefore believe that this sentence is unduly lenient. I ask that this case is referred to the court of appeal.

From FiLiA Facebook

Dottierichardson · 20/12/2018 22:35

OP I've emailed the Attorney General's office and forwarded to my MP, this kind of sentencing should be challenged, it sets a horrific precedent when it comes to violence against women, and agree with other posters there is a big difference between agreeing to a bit of 'rough' sex in the past and that being taken as automatic consent for the future and for the level of brutalisation this woman suffered.

arranbubonicplague · 20/12/2018 22:38

I really hope that women who engage in this activity

According to Twitter (not a reliable source) the agreement for mutual activities seems to be "Safe, Sane, Consensual". If we're to accept that both of the parties were engaged in regular BDSM-like activities (not entirely clear from the sentencing report) then either their framework broke down or they hadn't agreed one.

A gynaecologist confirmed that there was no sign of the internal injuries being caused against her will. That will be very difficult for most of us to comprehend

I think this is one of those areas where there will be massively different interpretations of what is meant by "rough sex" and this will allow men to continue to claim it as a defence. tbh, the damage caused in the breaking of the bottle as it was being removed and by the very process of that removal makes me wonder how straightforward it was to obtain a clear clinical picture of volitional internal injury. (This puts aside the issue as to whether somebody with Natalie Connolly's blood levels of alcohol and cocaine is deemed to have been in a sufficient state of autonomy to consent).

Jamiefraserskilt · 20/12/2018 22:57

How could she possibly defend herself or utter her safe word when intoxicated and beaten around the head? She is not here to tell her side and this sentence is absolutely appalling. A travesty.

arranbubonicplague · 20/12/2018 23:26

I have no legal background and am as ignorant as the next lay person but I find myself aghast at the sections around the underpinning inferences of consent in the sentencing report.

Professor Catharine McKinnon some useful observations on the issue of consent as it is interpreted legally around issues of rape and sexual assault:

Consent as a legal standard in the law of sexual assault commonly ex- onerates sexual interactions that are one-sided, nonmutual, unwanted, nonvoluntary, nonreciprocal, constrained, compelled, and coerced.41 Consent in sexual assault law is consistent with economic, psychological, and social hierarchical threats, so long as severe physical injury (rape itself is usually not considered a physical injury42) or life (that one fears HIV if no condom is used may not be included43) are not threatened. Sex imposed by an employer on an employee by threats to someone’s job, for example, is consensual sex in the criminal law, because submission under threat to economic survival does not satisfy standards that require that for rape, sex be compelled under threat of bodily harm to oneself or others.44

Legally valid consent in the law of sexual assault ranges from desire to despair to defeat to death. Desire, presumably, can be present even if rape is later charged, although its marks are seldom perceptible in the facts of cases.45 It operates mainly hypothetically. Despair, in which a woman re- signs herself to sexual intercourse she abhors because fighting is futile or dangerous or otherwise expensive, is ubiquitous.46 So is defeat, when resis- tance is overcome or the consequences of refusal are judged worse than the consequences of acquiescence.47

harvardlpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/10.2_6_MacKinnon.pdf (pdf)

I state here and now that I could not bring myself to quote the immediately following section about the issue of consent with someone who dies or is deemed to have been unconscious or comatose.

XmasPostmanBos · 21/12/2018 00:27

Disgusting sentence, if they had wanted to throw the book at him they could have, even if it can't be proved that he intended to kill her. GBH, Manslaughter with gross negligence, drug possession and supply, non consensual sex due to her inebriated state ie rape. Surely all these can lead to a life sentence if they want it to. That is without challenging the decision that he did not intend to kill her which could still be done.

powershowerforanhour · 21/12/2018 00:55

rightreckoner , it certainly helped the prosecution of Graham Dwyer that Elaine O'Hara had actually texted him, "Please don't kill me please...I don't want to die". And that she was frightened of being stabbed.

arranbubonicplague · 21/12/2018 06:45

@Wowzrr Is it possible for you to ask MNHQ to include the name of Natalie Connolly in your post title please so that more people might be able to find it?