2017, Dudley

Megan Bills was 17 and  met Ashley Foster, 24, hours before he killed her.  After killing her, he hid her body in a cupboard and searched online for ‘snuff films’ and violent pornography. He claimed in court that she asked him to strangle her and that she died accidentally in a sex game gone wrong.

Murder, life, min term 26 years

2016, Worcestershire

Natalie was mum to a daughter, and a twin sister. Natalie died with vaginal arterial bleeding and severe alcohol and cocaine intoxication at the bottom of the stairs of the home she shared with her partner of a few months, John Broadhurst, 36. Natalie had suffered 40 separate injuries, including serious internal trauma, a fractured eye socket and facial wounds. Broadhurst claimed her injuries, including "dreadful blunt-force injuries to her head, buttocks and breast before spraying her face with bleach to clean off the blood" were from consensual "rough sex". The next morning, he “stepped across her now lifeless body, had breakfast, washed the car and called the emergency services, telling the police and paramedics that she was “dead as a doughnut””.

The Attorney General was asked to intervene in the sentence given to Natalie's killer, he declined. In 2019, Broadhurst attempted to have his sentence reduced further, as he’d been impaired by drink. He failed.

In October 2019, MPs proposed additions to the law, so that this could never happen again. “For years, men got away with murder, claiming, “She asked for it.” Now we have to shut down this modern version of the defence.” and for Natalie:”We will get justice for her in a change in the law.”

Manslaughter, 3 years 8 months

2011, Birmingham

Michelle was strangled with a dog lead and found in Sheldon country park. She was killed by a man she had been a six week relationship with, who claimed that she had asked him to strangle her with the dog lead in the woods and that her death had been an accident in a “sex game gone wrong”.  David Connors, 38, changed his story multiple times.

Murder, life, min term 22 years

2006, Redditch

Naomi was a prison officer, her family said she was “the happiest we'd seen her in years, a life on track and a new future to look forward to”. She was killed by her 18 year old neighbour, Matthew Doman, reported in the Redditch advertiser as "a skilled liar, Doman invented a story that Miss Phipps had died accidentally during a biazarre practice to restrict breathing and intensify love-making." He claimed she had asked him to put a plastic bag over her head during sex. He had battered her and suffocated her with the bag.

Murder, life, min term 20 years

2001, Staffordshire

Kerry was a music teacher, and mum of three, and was killed by her husband Mark, then 42.

He told detectives she “fell to her death through the floor of their loft during a sex game” and that marks found on her neck “could have been caused by erotic-asphyxiation.” The court heard much detail from Mark Goddard on their alleged sex life. The crime scene officer first marked her death as a “sad accident”.

Murder, Life

1993, Staffordshire

Tracey, who had a 19 month old daughter, was found in a roadside ditch.  Her husband Steve, 31, had killed her and initially tried to make her death look like a robbery gone wrong.  Police found he had hidden her wedding rings in a packet of Daz, and when arrested he claimed she had died in a bondage sex act gone wrong - he told police that "It was an accident. She liked being tied up but we went too far".

Murder, life