Murder In the Guise of Self Defence? by Les May

THE Times recently carried a piece with the headline ‘Let women use weapons against abusers, urges QC’. Dame Vera Baird, the ‘Victims Commissioner’ wants Priti Patel to change the law to allow victims of domestic abuse to use disproportionate force in self defence. At present a domestic abuse victim can lawfully use only strictly proportionate force to protect themselves.

This woman is a QC and one might expect she would have given some thought to the possible consequences of such a change. Aside from the problem of a woman murdering her husband under the guise of self defence, it has the potential to change a violent, but non-lethal, attack upon a woman into a killing, if the perpetrator feels himself threatened with a weapon being wielded by the victim.

Any competent defence lawyer make the most of this.

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