Strangulation or suffocation was established as a specific offence under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. It was introduced, along with its racially or religiously motivated version, as part of the government’s Violence Against Women and Girls strategy and came into force on 7 June 2022. 

On 17 December 2024, the Council published a guideline to help the courts sentence the new offences and provide transparency for victims, offenders and the public. The guideline was developed following public consultation and will come into effect on 1 January 2025.

What are strangulation and suffocation?

Strangulation and suffocation are severe forms of assault. They are extremely dangerous acts where a perpetrator intentionally strangles their victim or affects their ability to breathe, often in an attempt to terrify, control on intimidate them. Strangulation or suffocation could happen in several ways, including:

• putting hands around someone’s neck
• choking someone with an arm lock
• using an item such as a scarf or belt around the neck
• covering someone’s mouth and nose, and
• applying pressure to the chest

Before Parliament introduced strangulation or suffocation as a specific offence, these sorts of acts would have been prosecuted as assault. Research considered by the Council in 2021 during revision of the assault guidelines highlighted the seriousness of strangulation and suffocation. As a result, we introduced a new culpability factor to the assault guidelines to make sure these offences were assessed at the highest level of seriousness. However, acts of strangulation or suffocation often leave no visible injury, and this was making it difficult to prosecute offenders under existing offences such as actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm that require evidence of a high degree of injury to be proved.

New offences and new guideline

The new offences of strangulation or suffocation and racially or religiously motivated strangulation or suffocation allow for perpetrators to be charged and prosecuted with a sufficiently serious offence even where no physical injuries are visible, and the Council’s guideline makes sure that sentences reflect the seriousness of these offences and the high risk of harm to victims.

The evidence is very clear that the risk of harm is incredibly high when applying pressure to someone’s throat or restricting their breathing, even for very short periods. Brain injury can occur in seconds. Victims, who are often vulnerable women subjected to domestic abuse, can be terrified and fear for their lives. The new guideline acknowledges the severity of victims’ experiences, including the psychological impact, and sends a clear warning to anyone who would harm someone else in this way that the courts will respond with a sentence that reflects how serious and devastating these offences are.