Abused woman spared jail for killing husband

A woman who strangled her husband with a martial arts belt escaped a prison sentence yesterday after the court heard she had suffered years of abuse at his hands.

Fatima Pearce, 37, who has three children, said she finally "snapped" and killed Ahmad Koulougli at the family home in Bristol last year when he had put pressure on her to perform a sexual act.

Sentencing her at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Thomas Crowther QC said Pearce was a "victim" of "intolerable treatment" from her husband of six years. "You have been subjected to behaviour that has led you, at the time of the incident, to be suffering from acute depression and distress," he said.

Imposing a three-year community rehabilitation order, he said Pearce had been abused physically and emotionally for "a very long time". She had tried to deal with the violence in a "proper, responsible measured way" by going to social agencies and the courts. She had received help but in the end had been left to her "own resources", he said. Her husband had been convicted of offences against Pearce.

The judge said he noted that Pearce was suffering a "severe abnormality of mind" at the time of the killing and that she continued to have psychological and physical health problems.

In addition, she was looking after her elderly mother and had three children, and prison would therefore be "wrong and counter-productive", the judge added. Pearce had pleaded guilty to manslaughter at an earlier hearing.