UK prosecutors won't seek retrial in abused wife case

LONDON – British prosecutors won't seek a retrial for a woman who had been serving a life sentence for killing her husband.

Sally Challen was convicted in 2011 of killing her 61-year-old husband Richard with a hammer. But her conviction was quashed and a new trial ordered in February, in light of new evidence about her mental state at the time.

The mother of two, who is 65, admitted the slaying but denied murder, saying her spouse had controlled and humiliated her for 40 years. During a hearing before Judge Andrew Edis on Friday, British prosecutors accepted the plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Challen had already been released from prison.

Outside court, Challen's son David said it was "an amazing moment," adding that the abuse his mother had suffered had not previously been taken into account.