§ Mr. Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will review homicide law as it relates to victims of domestic violence who kill partners who have abused them. [80183]
§ Mr. BoatengNo. The law on murder can already respond with flexibility to the particular circumstances of domestic violence victims. Self-defence is a complete defence to a charge of murder which if successful, results in the acquittal of the defendant. Provocation is a partial defence to murder, which reduces the offence to manslaughter. The other partial defence to murder, that of diminished responsibility, is also successfully pleaded in some domestic homicide cases. In such cases, the onus is on the prosecution to prove beyond all reasonable doubt the absence of, for example, provocation or self-defence on the part of the defendant.