PRESSURE is mounting on the Attorney General to review the 'unduly lenient' sentence of Darlington sex-killer Sam Pybus.
His MP has joined the outcry over the 32-year-old's four year and eight month sentence for choking to death Sophie Moss.
Pybus drove to the mother-of-two's Darlington flat after his wife had gone to bed and he had drunk 24 bottles of lager in February this year.
Teesside Crown Court heard how he sat in his car for 15 minutes before driving to a police station to admit choking her unconscious during 'rough sex'. Paramedics were unable to save her life.
Now Sedgefield MP Paul Howell, whose constituency includes Pybus' Middleton St George address, has written to Solicitor General Lucy Frazer to ask her to use her powers to refer this case to the Court of Appeal as an ‘Unduly Lenient’ sentence.
Mr Howell said: “The Government’s recent Domestic Abuse Act introduced a new crime Non-Fatal Strangulation with a maximum of five years imprisonment.
"Although all acts of domestic violence are abhorrent, it seems absurd that someone who commits actual bodily harm will get a longer sentence than someone who commits manslaughter and excuses their actions with memory loss caused by excessive drinking and ‘rough sex’."
Dr Charlotte Proudman, an award-winning barrister and specialist in gender-based violence, thanked Harriet Harman for her intervention.
She said: "It is an unduly lenient sentence and it’s also an unduly lenient crime, manslaughter."
The Attorney General's office has confirmed that it will be considering this case under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
A spokesperson said: "The Law Officers have 28 days from sentencing to consider the case and make a decision on whether to refer Sam Pybus' sentence to the Court of Appeal."
Following Pybus' sentence the Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement explaining its decision to not proceed with a murder charge.
They said it did not merely accept Pybus’s word that he did not intend to cause the 33-year-old serious harm – there was insufficient evidence to prove it.
Christopher Atkinson, of CPS North East, said:“In cases where death is caused by an unlawful act, but such intent cannot be proven, the appropriate charge to bring is one of manslaughter, for which we have built a robust case against the defendant."
The court heard how Pybus maintained he could not remember 'choking' the mother-of two to death but told police he accepted that he must have done.
The 32-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter maintaining that he had "no intention of harming her or causing her injury".
Her former partner, Daniel Parkington, told of the irreparable damage that had been caused to their two young children by their mother's senseless death.
After learning of the length of the prison sentence, he said: "What world do these people live?"
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