R v Clinton (2012), heard together with two other appeals, provided the Court of Appeal with its first opportunity to consider the new defence of loss of control laid down in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, which came into force in October 2010. It is especially relevant to the issue of interpreting s.55(6)(c), which stated ‘the fact that a thing done or said constituted sexual infidelity is to be disregarded’ as a qualifying trigger.
The appellant and his wife were undergoing a crisis in their marriage. There were financial problems and the defendant was also clinically depressed. Two weeks before her death Mrs Clinton left for a trial separation, but she would return to the family home to look after their children on their return from school until the appellant returned home. On the day before her death she told her husband she was having an affair. That evening her Land Rover was stolen and destroyed by her husband. The following day he accessed the Facebook account of his wife and her lover and discovered graphic photographs and messages containing sexual innuendos. Having received a phone call from his wife, he confronted her at the family home and then beat her and strangled her to death.
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