Sophie Moss death: MP says strangling sentence too lenient

Sophie Moss's brother said she had been "taken advantage of and exploited"

The sentence given to a man who choked a woman to death during sex is being reviewed by the Attorney General to decide if it was unduly lenient.

Sam Pybus, 32, was jailed for four years and eight months after admitting the manslaughter of Sophie Moss, 33, at her home in Darlington on 7 February.

Campaigners said the "outrageous" sentence sent a "dreadful message".

Referring the sentence for review, MP Harriet Harman said it "fails to reflect the gravity of the crime".

A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office said the review under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme would take place within 28 days and, if successful, the case would be referred to the Court of Appeal.

Ms Harman said Pybus' "disgraceful mitigation" that Ms Moss, a mother of two young boys, encouraged strangulation during sex made it sound as if it was "her fault".

"[Pybus] sought to shift the responsibility for Sophie's death from himself to her claiming that she both encouraged and enjoyed his placing pressure on her neck," Ms Harman said.

Pybus had drunk 24 bottles of lager before he visited Sophie Moss, Teesside Crown Court heard

The MP said: "The sentence fails to reflect the gravity of the crime, the impact of her death on her family, his sole culpability for her death, his cynical shifting of the responsibility from himself to her and sends out the message that killing your girlfriend during sex is a minor matter."

We Can't Consent To This, a campaign group set up in response to so-called "consensual" violence claims against women, also criticised the sentence.

Spokeswoman Fiona Mackenzie said: "It seems that strangling a woman to death is still viewed in law as an unfortunate accident, rather than terrible serious violence.

"This sends a dreadful message to women - four years and eight months is an outrageous sentence.

The Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme allows anyone to lobby the Attorney General to send a case to the Court of Appeal for review. Very experienced senior judges then consider the term given to an offender and how it compares to any relevant guidelines on sentencing and previous similar crimes.

Judge Paul Watson reduced Pybus' initial sentence of seven years because the law required him to give the killer a discount for his early admission that he was guilty of manslaughter - the crime of unintentionally causing Ms Moss' death.

Pybus said he never intended to kill, leading to the Crown Prosecution Service ruling out a murder charge. But he could not avoid a manslaughter conviction by claiming it was "rough sex gone wrong".

Some 28 years ago, the UK's then most senior judges declared that nobody can consent to serious harm as part of sado-masochistic sex - a ruling that was recently reasserted in the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act.

Pybus, who was married, had been seeing Ms Moss for sex about six times a year for three years without his wife's knowledge, Teesside Crown Court previously heard.

On 6 February he had drunk 24 bottles of Amstel lager over 10 hours, and drove to Ms Moss's flat after his wife went to bed.

At 04:43 GMT the following morning he drove to Darlington police station and told staff he believed he had strangled Ms Moss.

He said that during sex he would apply pressure to her neck, "an act he said she encouraged", but added he would never hurt her.

The claim she encouraged strangulation during sex was confirmed by her long-term partner, the court heard.

Instead of giving Ms Moss first aid, Pybus went to his car and thought about what to do for 15 minutes before driving to the police station, the court was told.

On Tuesday Judge Paul Watson QC said he accepted Pybus, of Water View, Middleton St George, Darlington, did not intend to kill and believed he had genuine remorse.

In a victim statement Ms Moss's brother said she had been "taken advantage of and exploited".