Darlington, 2021

Sophie was mum to two boys. She was bubbly, charming, hardworking. Sophie was also very vulnerable: she had suffered mental health issues after developing postnatal depression, and days before she died had been seriously ill in hospital with liver and kidney infections.

Sophie was killed by Sam Pybus, who had driven drunk to her home and strangled her to death. He had used such force that his hands were “hurting”.

Sam Pybus claimed she had died in consensual strangulation and she had regulary encouraged him to this.

This claim was rejected by both Sophie’s former and current partners. Pybus’s ex wife told police he had a history of strangling her - she felt that police were looking for information to support his story: “If they’d really looked into Sam’s history with women, they would have found abuse, sexual violence and just a complete lack of respect.”

The CPS prosecuted Pybus for manslaughter, Pybus pled guilty at court and was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months.

The Attorney General attempted to appeal the sentence as Unduly Lenient. When this went to the Court of Appeal, we, with the Centre for Women’s Justice and the support of Sam Pybus’ ex wife and Sophie Moss’s children’s dad, attempted to intervene to ensure the court had the latest information on non fatal strangulation harms, and our research on violence claimed to be rough sex. The lead appeal judge rejected our application: agreeing with Pybus’s legal team’s claim that our information was on non-consensual strangulation, but this case - Sophie’s killing - was consensual strangulation.

The Court of Appeal did not increase Sam Pybus’s sentence, with Judge Macur calling Sophie’s strangulation a “risky sexual practice”.

Manslaughter, 4 years 8 months

2019, Switzerland

Anna, from Harrogate, was found dead in a hotel room where she had been staying with her 29 year old boyfriend. She died from suffocation, and had suffered cuts and fractures.

Her boyfriend claimed to police that Anna had died in a sex game gone wrong, and his claim was widely reported in the UK press.

Prosecutors did not believe his claim, and briefed press that “the claim that she died in a sex game was never convincing.”

At court, the Swiss judge rejected his claim that Anna had died in consensual violence, saying Anna “was killed with an intentional act.”

"A death from strangulation is not instantaneous: whoever causes it has time to see what is happening, sees the victim suffocate but does not stop.”

Intentional Homicide, 18 years - Swiss Court

2018, Hull

Laura is killed by a man she'd just met that day. Jason Gaskell, 24, was charged with murder but admitted manslaughter. He had strangled a woman 11 days before he killed Laura, and was later given a 16 week sentence for that earlier attack. Gaskell held a knife to Laura's neck while having sex - he claimed with her consent - and used mild to moderate force to cut through her carotid artery. The court accepted that Gaskell, the only surviving witness, had not intended to use the knife to kill Laura and was engaged in what the judge called “bizarre and violent sadomasochistic sexual activity”

Manslaughter, 6 years

2014, Hull

Man cleared of all charges after being  charged with the manslaughter and violent injury of his cousin, Dawn Warburton, during a "sex game gone wrong."  Mark Pickford, 39, was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence and assault.  Pickford had sent Dawn a string of sexually violent texts including "You’re getting tied up, I will treat you like a random victim, gonna do you Manchester style".  Dawn was found above a bloodstained bed, with Pickford’s tow rope tied several times round her neck and thirty injuries to her face and neck.​

Not guilty

2011, Sheffield

Lee was killed by her ex partner Alexander Burnett, 32. Lee had been strangled and stabbed in the throat.

Burnett claimed that he would often strangle her, during sex, and that Lee had asked him to hold the knife to her neck during sex. He “had feared that nobody would have believed what had happened.” A pathologist gave evidence that Lee’s strangulation injuries were consistent with “sex play”. Despite this, the judge felt there was “manifest, deliberate and chilling intent to kill”.

Burnett had previous convictions for assaulting Lee, as well as for GBH. After stabbing her he “watched her die” over several hours.

Murder, life, min term 22 years

2010, Yorkshire

Kerry was a beauty therapist and mum.  Her partner, Jason O'Malley, 39, "insecure, suspicious, jealous, possessive and prone to violent outbursts" strangled Kerry and "told officers when arrested that the beauty therapist encouraged him to apply 'a little bit of pressure' and they had done it six or seven times in sex sessions - although he didn't like doing it".  He had applied "considerable force" to kill her.

 Murder, life, min term 15 years

1990, Leeds

Janet was killed with a snooker cue whilst tied to her bed in a "sickening" assault in her own home, while her boyfriend was out on his milk round.  Janet died from internal injuries and after being whipped.  Kenneth Anness - then 36 - claimed in court that he had killed her in a sex game gone wrong and was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.  Despite having previous convictions for sexual offences the Judge said the jury had found that Anness had not intended to commit serious harm to Janet and sentenced him to seven years. 

Five years later in Bradford and having changed his name to Kenneth Valentine, he had murdered 25 year old Caroline Creevy and dumped her body in a culvert.  When arrested for this, another woman was found imprisoned in his flat.  Both Caroline and the imprisoned woman were prostitutes.  For this murder Anness/Valentine received a life sentence with 22 year minimum term.  Valentine was friends with and neighbour of Stephen Griffiths - a man known as the "Crossbow Cannibal" and while neighbours, both murdered local women.

Manslaughter, 7 years