2001, South Shields

Jacqueline was mum to three children and was killed by her husband Norman. Although they had been due to split up on the day of her death after a series of rows, Jacqueline was strangled by her husband with a length of washing line in what was reported as "an alleged sex game " during "one last passionate session" . The prosecution refused to accept his guilty plea to manslaughter. The court heard Norman had been planning to abduct the couple's sons.

Murder, life, min term 12 years

1984, Tyne and Wear

Lorraine was asphyxiated in what her husband Trevor claimed was an accident, "during a bondage sex session". He said it was her idea to be gagged, it “was always her idea”.

Lorraine had spoken with a solicitor's clerk before her killing, to arrange a divorce, to take out a County Court injunction to prevent her husband molesting her. Lorraine said Trevor was violent to her, forced her into degrading sex, and that “ she was scared of him”. A few weeks later, after ending the relationship, Lorraine was dead.

The coroner ruled that Lorraine had been unlawfuly killed after "Lorraine had been bound and gagged by her husband" - and that her husband should face charges of manslaughter (the coroner said he didn't believe that Trevor intended her to die).

Despite this, and despite pleas from Lorraine's grandmother Diane and their MP, the Director for Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General declined to bring charges against Lorraine's husband.

In 1985 Lorraine's grandmother said: “I feel very bitter and very let down by the law.”

“What really upsets us is the assassination of Lorraine's good name.”

No charges brought

1982, Co. Durham

Dorothy was from Easterhouse in Glasgow, and met the man who killed her by responding to a lonely hearts ad. Vincent Mulholland, then 27, was in Rampton secure hospital when he placed the advert. He had been in Rampton since chloroforming and attempting to rape a woman on a train in Germany. He - according to evidence given - killed Dorothy in a “kinky sex session” by tying “tights round her neck during lovemaking”. Although found not guilty of murder, he was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. As part of this sentence, Mulholland was a reserved patient of the secure hospital - who could not be released without the permission of the Home Secretary.

Manslaughter, diminished responsibility, 12 years

1980, Walthamstow

Pat, from Middlesborough - described by her step-brother as “happy go lucky, and “the kind of girl who would decide to do something and no one would be able to stop her” is killed by Peter Swindell, 40, a policeman. Pat was a prostitute at Kings Cross and may have moved to London to avoid the Yorkshire Ripper. She was a lesbian and was described in news reports as “Butch Pat” and “heavily tattooed with the names of her former female lovers”.

The court heard that Swindell was "a man obsessed with bondage" and that bondage pornography was found at his home, including photos he had taken of women feigning death in nooses. One woman, who had been going out with Swindell, spent a "night of fear" in his home when she was late to meet him: he tied her to a cross and put a hood over her head, before leaving her overnight. Described as “a respectable woman and not a prostitute”, he had shouted at her “this will teach you to let me down and refuse to marry me”.

Pat’s cause of death was not established although it was likely she suffocated. Swindell’s defence was that she may have died of heart failure while tied up. Swindell dismembered Pat's body in the bath, and hid her remains, wrapped in plastic, in Epping Forest. He was not charged with murder as the Director of Public Prosecutions said the evidence did not reveal an intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to Pat.

Swindell was cleared of manslaughter and sentenced to five years, later reduced on appeal, for preventing the burial of Pat's body.

Not guilty

1979, South Shields

Vivien is strangled by John Dudgeon (aka John Taylor) "when he was a 21-year old DJ in his home town, he suffocated 19-year old Vivienne [sic] Scott, who had refused him sex." Taylor dumped her body, wrapped in rope, plastic and a piece of carpet near his home "and later claimed her death was the result of a prank which had gone wrong during a sex game." Taylor said “I thought she was enjoying the whole thing”. He had asphyxiated her for six minutes.

The judge said Vivien died after "horseplay". Dudgeon's defence QC said "his mistake was not seeking help when Vivien had died, if he had he would probably not even been on trial for manslaughter."

Seventeen months after release, Dudgeon went on to rape and attempt to murder a woman in her home, and a few months after release from a sentence for that crime, murder a woman in the "Sheffield Snooker Hall" murder, where he broke Susan McNamara's neck and then strangled her.

Manslaughter, 4 years