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| Prosecutors thought no jury would accept Natalie Connolly was murdered. What does that say? | Prosecutors thought no jury would accept Natalie Connolly was murdered. What does that say? |
| (25 days later) | |
| Natalie Connolly, mother of one, would have been 28 this year. There you go – some overdue humanisation for Connolly, whose brutal death in 2016 has been in the news. | Natalie Connolly, mother of one, would have been 28 this year. There you go – some overdue humanisation for Connolly, whose brutal death in 2016 has been in the news. |
| Elsewhere, Connolly has been portrayed as a woman who liked “rough sex”, so much so that she died for it, at the hands of her partner, John Broadhurst, a millionaire property developer. | Elsewhere, Connolly has been portrayed as a woman who liked “rough sex”, so much so that she died for it, at the hands of her partner, John Broadhurst, a millionaire property developer. |
| Wanting to “teach her a lesson” (for sending photos to other men), Broadhurst “lost it” and inflicted around 40 injuries on the heavily intoxicated Connolly, including fracturing an eye socket and severe internal trauma; he also sprayed bleach on her face because “he didn’t want her to look a mess”. Connolly was left bleeding at the bottom of the stairs. When Broadhurst finally called for an ambulance, he described her as “dead as a doughnut”, a phrase filled with chilling disrespect. | Wanting to “teach her a lesson” (for sending photos to other men), Broadhurst “lost it” and inflicted around 40 injuries on the heavily intoxicated Connolly, including fracturing an eye socket and severe internal trauma; he also sprayed bleach on her face because “he didn’t want her to look a mess”. Connolly was left bleeding at the bottom of the stairs. When Broadhurst finally called for an ambulance, he described her as “dead as a doughnut”, a phrase filled with chilling disrespect. |
| Doubtful of achieving a guilty murder verdict, the Crown Prosecution Service reduced the charge to manslaughter. Broadhurst pleaded guilty – effectively to not ringing for help quickly enough. He could be out within two years. | Doubtful of achieving a guilty murder verdict, the Crown Prosecution Service reduced the charge to manslaughter. Broadhurst pleaded guilty – effectively to not ringing for help quickly enough. He could be out within two years. |
| Well done to the former solicitor general Harriet Harman for officially querying this outcome, but what was the CPS thinking – perhaps something along the lines of: “Any conviction is better than nothing”? Did it really not trust a jury to be convinced of intent in this instance? If not, exactly what would it take for a woman’s violent death at the hands of her partner to be called murder? | Well done to the former solicitor general Harriet Harman for officially querying this outcome, but what was the CPS thinking – perhaps something along the lines of: “Any conviction is better than nothing”? Did it really not trust a jury to be convinced of intent in this instance? If not, exactly what would it take for a woman’s violent death at the hands of her partner to be called murder? |
| The recent census on femicide reported, among other things, that 139 women died as a result of male violence in 2017, with three-quarters of the victims knowing their killers. In Connolly’s case, much has been made of her sexual predilections, but, really, so what? It doesn’t mean that she fantasised about being beaten, killed or leaving her young daughter motherless. Besides, rough sex means different things to different people, and even very serious BDSM practitioners would have a safe-word to stop things going too far. This overplayed rough sex angle comes across as cynical victim-blaming – it fails to explain 40 injuries and bleach sprayed on her face. | The recent census on femicide reported, among other things, that 139 women died as a result of male violence in 2017, with three-quarters of the victims knowing their killers. In Connolly’s case, much has been made of her sexual predilections, but, really, so what? It doesn’t mean that she fantasised about being beaten, killed or leaving her young daughter motherless. Besides, rough sex means different things to different people, and even very serious BDSM practitioners would have a safe-word to stop things going too far. This overplayed rough sex angle comes across as cynical victim-blaming – it fails to explain 40 injuries and bleach sprayed on her face. |
| Then another disturbing thought – that the CPS might have a point. That extreme violence against women by their partners, even when it results in death, remains so systemically downgraded in this country that trying for a guilty murder verdict could result in men such as Broadhurst walking free. It’s as though we’ve been “groomed”, en masse, as a society to keep accepting the historical fallacy of domestic violence as a non-serious issue. Increasingly, there’s an argument for losing the word domestic altogether and just calling it what it is – violence, mainly against women, usually extreme, and all too often fatal. | Then another disturbing thought – that the CPS might have a point. That extreme violence against women by their partners, even when it results in death, remains so systemically downgraded in this country that trying for a guilty murder verdict could result in men such as Broadhurst walking free. It’s as though we’ve been “groomed”, en masse, as a society to keep accepting the historical fallacy of domestic violence as a non-serious issue. Increasingly, there’s an argument for losing the word domestic altogether and just calling it what it is – violence, mainly against women, usually extreme, and all too often fatal. |
| In the meantime, how many more killings of women are going to be demoted to manslaughter for the sake of, what – improved conviction stats? In cases such as these, if British courts and jurors can’t be trusted to deliver true justice, what hope is there? | In the meantime, how many more killings of women are going to be demoted to manslaughter for the sake of, what – improved conviction stats? In cases such as these, if British courts and jurors can’t be trusted to deliver true justice, what hope is there? |
| • Barbara Ellen is an Observer columnist | • Barbara Ellen is an Observer columnist |
| Domestic violence | Domestic violence |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| UK criminal justice | UK criminal justice |
| Women | Women |
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