UK Prosecutors would no longer pursue a murder charge for mercy killings if the suspect were put under “significant emotional pressure” by the victim, new prosecution guidelines suggest.
There have been several high-profile mercy killings in recent years, including the case of David Hunter, a Briton who was jailed in Cyprus for suffocating his desperately ill wife. He has since been released and called for the law to be changed.
Retired baggage handler Graham Mansfield, 74, faced a murder charge after cutting the throat of his terminally ill wife, Dyanne, 71, after she begged him to end her suffering when her lung cancer became too much to bear.
He was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter, though he avoided prison with a two-year suspended sentence.
The homicide guidance does not touch on assisted dying or similar scenarios treated separately in law.
The guideline shake-up would also mean murder charges would be more likely in failed suicide pacts if a suspect stood to gain from the death or influenced a victim not to seek medical treatment. But prosecutors would no longer pursue a murder charge if the victim had made an informed decision that they wished to die.
Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill KC said if an abuser’s unlawful actions resulted in suicide, they would now face a manslaughter or murder charge.