Barrister Says Dead Woman Was Put on Trial After Husband Acquitted of Manslaughter

Trybus's barrister Katy Thorne KC said the prosecution was totally obsessed with a dogma and that the whole case was based on an agenda that when women allege violence and domestic abuse they must be telling the truth. Proudman said she felt the comments meant that a dead woman was put on trial while the defendant faded into the background.

Thorne said Proudman's remarks did not accurately reflect what was said to the jury and showed a limited understanding of the facts of the case. She said Proudman, who practises family law, had not been in court to hear the evidence during the trial.

The defence also made a direct appeal to the men on the jury, saying they might feel very afraid now because if they enter into a relationship with a woman who makes allegations against them they will be prosecuted even if the allegations turn out to be untrue.

Proudman said the defence claimed there is an agenda to believe women by the criminal justice system when in fact it barely prosecutes rape and routinely retraumatises victims. She criticised the defence for telling male jurors to be afraid of false allegations, saying they were vanishingly rare and represented less than 2% of reports made.

In response Thorne said the trial was prosecuted by the most senior prosecutor in the country and presided over by a senior high court judge whose background is in discrimination law. She said had she said anything to the jury which was improper or did not reflect the evidence the prosecution and the judge would have objected.

They did not. Janaya Walker, the interim director of End Violence Against Women, said that many women were treated as suspects by the criminal justice system after dying by suicide. Walker said successive governments have taken action to address the fact that the criminal justice system and courts are often a site of harm and retraumatisation with high dropout rates and low prospects of justice.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said the agency respects the decision of the jury. The spokesperson said the jury had heard all the evidence and come to their verdicts. The CPS has yet to secure a conviction in a jury trial for manslaughter after a suspected suicide related to domestic abuse but has said it will consider bringing cases where there is evidence to do so.