Unfairly prosecuted for helping my abusive ex

The Criminal Justice system is "colluding" in the abuse of some women, who are victims of domestic violence, according to a leading charity.

The Centre for Women's Justice has warned that "unfit laws and practices" are seeing vulnerable women, forced into crime by their abusers, "failed" and "unjustly" arrested, detained and prosecuted for offences arising directly from their experience of abuse.

This includes scenarios where domestic abuse victims are coerced into offending, and cases where the victim is forced to defend themselves against their abuser.

Megan, 29, was prosecuted for perverting the course of justice, because of how she helped her abusive ex after he committed murder.

"I had accepted that I was probably going to die at the hands of that man," she tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

"And I came close a couple of times."

"I woke up everyday with an entirely new sense of dread and despair," Megan says

Megan first met her ex boyfriend when she was 23 and he was 38 - they fell in love quickly, but worrying behaviour slowly crept into their relationship. After experiencing three years of emotional, financial and physical abuse, Megan says she became numb inside.

"I woke up terrified just to be alive and have to do another day with him and not knowing what you know, what he'd do," she adds.

"He had strangled me, he had hit me, he had pinned me to the floor, kicked me, held a knife to my throat.

"I had accepted my fate, but he also threatened absolutely everyone else in my life. My family, my friends."

• Fight for justice felt like abuse, says victim

• 'I was abused by my ex and then jailed for lying'

In June 2019 when her ex was arrested - and later convicted - of murdering his cousin, Megan felt like she might finally be safe and free from his grasp.

But the feeling didn't last - because Megan herself was then arrested and prosecuted for perverting the course of justice.

The day of the murder, the pair were staying at her parent's house in Teddington. Megan says her ex asked her to pick him up from the train station and withdraw money for him - something she says she used to do for him on a daily basis.

This was used to argue that she had aided her partner in a murder that she knew nothing about.

Megan and her parents allege that the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were aware of the context of the domestic abuse from the very beginning but chose to prosecute Megan anyway.

Speaking about Megan's case, the CPS tells the BBC "victim support is at the forefront of every stage of a prosecution."

"It is not the role of the Crown Prosecution Service's to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a jury to consider," it says in a statement.

"We are satisfied that our decision to bring that charge was correct, in accordance with our legal test, and we respect the verdict the jury reached in this case."

'Double standards'

"It's not in the public interest to prosecute victims of domestic abuse, who have been coerced or forced into committing an offence, it simply shouldn't happen. But it does happen, it happens routinely," Katy Williams, from the Centre for Women's Justice, tells Newsbeat.

There is currently no official data that shows how often domestic abuse has directly resulted in a crime or alleged crime, as happened to Megan.

Katy adds there is a "failure" to protect women and girls from "inappropriate prosecution."

Megan was found not guilty after a second trial in 2021

The government has previously publicly recognised the link between domestic abuse and offending.

In 2017, almost 57% of women in prison said they had experienced domestic abuse.

The Centre for Women's Justice are calling for an amendment to the law on self-defence, that would allow survivors acting in self defence against their abuser the same protection as householders defending themselves against an intruder.

As well as this, it wants a statutory defence for domestic abuse victims, modelled on the Modern Slavery Act 2015, that would give survivors similar protection to victims of trafficking who are compelled to offend.

'I was alone'

Megan's parents say the day the couple were arrested, they were informed by a Detective Inspector at the Met Police to expect details of coercion and violence used against Megan to come out in trial.

Evidence of the domestic abuse was also available to the CPS, after Megan reported it to the police.

In December 2020, the CPS tried Megan for perverting the course of justice, which resulted in a hung jury after they were not able to agree on a verdict.

A detailed psychiatric report sent to the CPS, seen by the BBC, outlined the mental health conditions Megan was suffering from as a result of the domestic abuse from her ex.

For two years Megan was advised by medical professionals that it was too risky to start treatment for PTSD because the intensity of treatment, combined with the legal proceedings, could have been too triggering and dangerous for her.

"I was on anti-psychotics at this point and the CPS had just called my parents as witnesses for the prosecution, so I was in this complete and utter state and I was alone."

Megan says these symptoms, including hallucinations, loss of sight and panic attacks, continued throughout the two years that she was taken to trial.

Despite this, the CPS chose to retrial Megan. After her second trial in July 2021 she was found not guilty. A BBC investigation has found that, in addition to costs incurred by the CPS, £32,000 was spent on external counsels to prosecute Megan.

In response to The Centre for Women's Justice's report, the CPS said it is updating its legal guidance.

"We are already taking steps to improve every aspect of how a case is handled, but accept more is needed and will consider these recommended actions carefully," it said in a statement.

'Continuing my ex's work'

"The CPS were continuing my ex's work for him, I was still under this man's control, " she says.

"I think the CPS were more interested in getting a conviction, than real justice," Megan says.

"I think they prosecuted me in the hope that I would be beneficial in getting my ex partner a longer sentence. I think they tried to use me as a pawn in their chess match. I was easy collateral damage for them."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, there are a list of organisations that may be able to help at BBC Action Line.

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