The government has unveiled plans to implement harsher sentences for those who kill their partners through abusive, degrading or dangerous sexual behaviour (‘rough sex’). This new statutory aggravating factor will impose longer sentences for such killers and applies to all manslaughter cases.
This change is intended to recognise the gravity of extremely dangerous sexual practices that are inherently non-consensual, and builds upon the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to emphasise that the ‘rough sex defence’ does not exist in law.