Numerous studies have shown that non-fatal strangulation is one of the highest markers for future homicide, which is why Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most US states have developed preventative legislation to strengthen police, prosecutorial and sentencing policies that surround it. In most US states, for example, it is now compulsory for police to charge strangulation assaults as felonies. Yet in the UK, they can fall under battery – the mildest assault possible.

Susan Edwards, a barrister and law professor, has spent decades fighting to make strangulation a stand-alone offence. “In the UK, it’s routinely minimised at every level,” she says. “It’s presented as a momentary loss of control. Attempted strangulations often leave no visible injury and fatal cases too frequently end in light sentences. You hear things such as ‘lover’s tiff’. A cardiac arrest can occur within seconds during strangulation, so there’s also the defence that strangulation wasn’t the cause of death.”

And now, a new defence has been added to the mix – consent. Fiona Mackenzie, an actuary, set up We Can’t Consent to This following the outcry over the so-called “rough sex killing” of Natalie Connolly, 26, by her millionaire partner John Broadhurst, 40. Despite the victim having 40 separate injuries, including serious internal trauma, a fractured eye socket and bleach on her face, Broadhurst received a sentence of three years, eight months for manslaughter.