Domestic abusers who throttle their victims but leave no mark are to face seven years in jail. Justice Secretary Robert Buckland hopes to plug a loophole that lets attackers off too lightly, thereby protecting 5,000 women a year.
He is acting after an alarming increase in domestic violence during lockdowns. Mr Buckland will try to add a new offence of “non-fatal strangulation” to a police and sentencing Bill next month.
At present, domestic abusers get up to five years for actual bodily harm and 10 for GBH. But that requires prosecutors to prove an identifiable injury.
And offenders who grab victims by the throat often leave no obvious trace. So police are left with a charge of common assault, which only carries a maximum of six months in
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