All language subtitles for murder.uk.s03e10.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

(dramatic music)

I'm David Wilson,
Emeritus Professor of Criminology,

and for over 30 years,
I've investigated

the phenomenon of murder

and what it is that might
motivate someone to kill.

Every murder case is different.

But time and again,
a deadly pattern emerges

of warning signs and red flags.

In this new series,
I investigate some of the UK's

most harrowing murder cases
to understand how and why

these terrible crimes occur.

This is Murder UK.

On a sunny March day, 55-year-old
music teacher Christopher Donnelly

was reported dead at home.

Though his wife Hannegret
suggested

the death was natural,
police were instantly suspicious.

They knew this was
no ordinary death,

and their initial inquiry
focused entirely

on proving that a murder
had taken place.

Detectives began questioning
Hannegret Donnelly.

(Detective) Within your family,
what would you say your role is?

Yeah, I don't know.

I like to know
what's going on, so...

I like to be informed
as to what is going on.

I don't like it when
people talk behind my back.

(David Wilson)
Over the coming weeks,

evidence would emerge
suggesting something sinister

happened behind the closed
doors of an ordinary home

on an ordinary street.

The first that the
emergency services knew about

Christopher's death was when they
received a call from Hannegret

using her neighbour's
phone to say that

her husband had died
the night before.

When they attended,
they found Christopher

clearly dead on the bathroom floor

with a significant number
of injuries.

(David) Hannegret called
the emergency services

from her neighbour's phone
because the Donnelly family,

Hannegret and Christopher,
and their four children

had opted out of society,
choosing not to own a phone.

She told the operator Christopher
had died the night before,

claiming she'd tried to revive him.

Emergency services immediately
noted the unusual delay.

The patient had reportedly
died hours earlier.

The 999 operator questioned
a little bit, saying,

"When did he die?"
And she told him it was

12 hours ago and that she hadn't
called in the interim

because they were coming
to terms with his death.

Police and ambulance
turned up at the same time.

(David) Hannegret's decision
to wait 12 hours before calling

for help and also using
a neighbour's phone

to do so isn't a sign of panic,

but a deliberate, calculated act.

That delay of 12 hours
allows her to decide

what her story is going to be,
clean up the crime scene,

calm down.

So from the very start, Hannegret
is deliberately staging a narrative

that she would like the
outside world to accept

about what happens to her husband.

Wounds over his head and face
looked several days old.

They'd already scabbed over.

A paramedic also noted
a significant admission.

Hannegret stated
they'd had a falling out.

And when that happened, she hit
Christopher with a rolling pin.

Damning evidence begins to emerge.

She admitted that
she had assaulted him

at some point in the past,
but he had just simply died.

(David) All in all, a series
of highly abnormal events

seem to have taken place.

Leaving somebody that at some
point you have presumably loved,

regardless of what's happened
in your relationship,

to die on their own
on a bathroom floor

and not to call the authorities
until some 12 hours after

life is extinct indicates
a lack of any moral fibre,

a lack of any compassion.

It is not a normal response
to somebody's death,

and it's one of the most
chilling things about this woman.

(David) Police bring
the German-born Hannegret in

for further questioning.

She had admitted to assaulting
Christopher in the past,

and was that what happened here?

He tripped over and... and...

and fell, and he fell
against the crate.

There was a crate,
and the crate got broken,

and then he cut himself
on the head.

(David) Her answers
were convoluted.

Police quickly suspected
this was far from an accident.

The wounds to Christopher's
head were clearly

not caused by falling on a crate.

When Christopher Donnelly's
body

was examined,

78 external injuries
were found

and internal injuries,
which included

a fractured spine
and a fractured neck.

Even a cursory examination
of the body

would have clearly revealed
evidence of domestic abuse.

(Neil Lancaster) There was
a number of crucial findings

within the home, which actually
did point towards this being

a long-running systemic abuse.

There was blood spatters
found on the ceiling.

There was blood found on the walls
and blood found on furniture,

which clearly indicated
this isn't just somebody

who's got ill and died.

This is someone who's
been violently assaulted

on a number of occasions.

(David) It's the forensic discovery
of blood spatter on the ceilings

and on the wall that really give
us evidence that what happens

to Christopher isn't
a singular abusive attack,

but characterised by
systematic abuse

over many months, many years.

And of course,
what we tend to forget

is that whether you're
a man or a woman,

you're more likely to be murdered
in a domestic setting

than in an outdoor public space.

The home for Christopher
was not a place of sanctuary.

It's the forensic evidence in
particular that refutes

Hannegret's narrative that
this was an accident,

that Christopher had simply
fallen onto the crate.

Christopher's official
cause of death

was listed as bronchial pneumonia,
but police had to

determine if the death was
accelerated by his wife's violence.

Was this a murder case?

When questioned, Hannegret Donnelly
offered a bizarre justification.

Her husband had entered a trance,

and she had hit him with
a rolling pin simply

to force him to snap out of it.

I did hit him a bit harder
sometimes, and then...

but as I said, he never...

he... it wasn't that
he sort of fell...

fell over and lost consciousness.

Hannegret claimed that frequently
the abuse was due to some desire

to bring him out of
what she called a trance,

that he would be in a state
where he wasn't listening,

and she would want to
revive him from that.

But what we know is that
Christopher was a very,

very ill man by this point.

He was both physically
and mentally weak.

One of the strangest
features of this case

is the weaponization
of Christopher's health.

Hannegret actually claims
that she was beating Christopher

so as to sort of waken him
out of his trance-like state,

whereas, in fact, his trance-like
state is caused by the fact

that he is being beaten
regularly by his wife.

The belief that somehow
she can talk her way out

of what has happened
to Christopher...

she thinks because she controlled
that domestic sphere in the way

that she did that she can
control all the spheres

outside the home in relation
to explaining what might

have happened to her husband.

(David)
The police interview tapes offer

a crucial window into the true
nature of Hannegret Donnelly.

What I see here is
somebody whose body language

is very much at odds with
the words coming out of her mouth.

She's used to
providing a believable,

rational, reasonable,
almost professional

account of what happened.

(David) What was the real cause
of Christopher Donnelly's death?

Bronchopneumonia, or years of
beatings at the hands of his wife?

(David) The violence inflicted
upon Christopher Donnelly

was dismissed by his wife Hannegret
as nothing more

than banter
between husband and wife.

It was more like so we had a chase
around the kitchen table.

Also, it was more...
yeah, sometimes just a... yeah.

(Detective)
Sorry. What did you say?

Chase around the kitchen table in
a more sort of light-hearted way.

(David) Her story is
simply not adding up.

To charge Hannegret with murder,

detectives had to uncover
the truth hidden inside

an ordinary home
on the Berryfields estate.

The couple had been
married for 23 years.

Christopher, a music teacher
with a biochemistry degree,

was a talented musician.

Their life... a husband, wife,
and four children...

was a routine dictated by the
strong matriarchal influence

of Hannegret Donnelly.

Hannegret Donnelly in some
respects is a bit of a mystery.

She and her family very much
kept themselves to themselves.

(Clare Mackintosh) She trained
as a midwife but in fact

hadn't worked since
she'd had her children.

She'd been a stay-at-home mum
and homeschooling them.

Her husband, Christopher,
had a science background,

but he was a very
talented musician.

He'd worked as a music teacher for
a long time and performed as well.

He was around the same age,
a year older than his wife.

They'd been married for 23 years.

So far, the Donnelly story
seems normal.

But aspects of the household
are starkly dissimilar

from the lives of their neighbours.

They were, incredibly,
a religious family

with deeply-held beliefs.

They apparently had some
type of view around there

being an "end of days existence."

They shunned modern technology.

What emerges is that
the Donnelly family...

Hannegret, Christopher,
and their four children...

had opted out of society,

with Hannegret at the heart
of every decision.

Hannegret had gradually began
to take more control

of things in their relationship.

(David) She had little
interest in the world

beyond the confines
of their four walls.

Such was their mistrust
that they took

their children out of
mainstream education

and schooled them at home.

All the reports are that they
lived a very insular existence

and really didn't associate
with neighbours

or anything particularly
such as that.

I get the sense that Hannegret
creates within the home

a kind of psychological fortress.

The home becomes her domain.

The children are homeschooled.

She cuts off technology
to the house.

She controls the influences
within the house itself.

And therefore,
there's no contradictory voices.

Was this isolation
part of a bigger picture?

Experts agree that isolation
is a tried and trusted technique

that's utilised by abusers
to gain greater power

over vulnerable victims.

(Sarah Jarvis) It is possible,
of course, for families

to be very happy
and self-sufficient...

to homeschool their own children,
to avoid the evils

of the internet
and modern technology.

But it also makes it much, much
more difficult for any authorities

to keep an eye on what's
going on and to raise concerns

if they see anything
out of the ordinary.

(David) Christopher's life
took a turn after his marriage.

Though it started well,
police uncover

that he had become both
physically weak and mentally frail

in recent years.

Her husband initially
was a talented musician,

but quite clearly over time
became more and more and more weak

and became a shadow
of his former self.

By January 2018,

Christopher was effectively
disabled and unable to walk.

His health simply dwindled
over the years of his marriage,

likely due to the injuries
he suffered at his wife's hands.

We know that Christopher
stopped working as a music teacher

in 2015 due to ill health.

And we can only assume that
some of that ill health

was as a result of
Hannegret's treatment of him.

His mental health began to suffer.

And what's particularly
distressing about this case

is the knowledge that
Hannegret was abusing

her husband at the very time
when he needed her support.

So gradually,
Christopher became weaker,

not just physically
but mentally,

until he wasn't able
to defend himself at all.

(David)
Detectives needed to know more

from this outwardly
cooperative woman

who to many seemed like
an unlikely abuser.

The pathologist said he
had never seen a case

where so many injuries
were inflicted.

That kind of says it all for
Christopher, a 55-year-old man,

to have been subjected
to such abuse,

which led to
so much scar tissue

that even a Home Office
pathologist was shocked.

There were a number
of old injuries as well

that showed that
Christopher's abuse had started

many years previously.

He had a cauliflower ear,
which is more commonly associated

with rugby player injuries,
and a fracture

to the cartilage in his voice box,

which was consistent with
attempted strangulation.

These are not minor injuries.
This is not a fit of pique.

This is systematic physical abuse
using third-party objects,

not just using her fists.

(David) The critical question
for detectives was simple.

Can a death from pneumonia
be directly linked

to years of sustained beating?

There are different types
of pneumonia, and some of them

strike much more
quickly than others.

Some of them are
very, very virulent.

Some of them can strike
completely healthy people

and leave them almost
at death's door within hours.

But others are only
likely to strike

if somebody's physical condition
has been so weakened

that that germ
can invade more deeply.

It seems highly likely
that Christopher

was in such a physically
weakened state

that even his immune system
was giving up.

(David) The pathologist's
conclusion was that

Christopher didn't die
from natural causes.

He didn't die from
bronchial pneumonia.

Instead, he died because
of the 78 injuries

that the pathologist
was able to determine.

And therefore,
in the eyes of the law,

that's where we can bring
a murder charge.

The abuse of men by women is more
common than many people think.

Alex Skeel, who was trapped in
a long-term abusive relationship

until his former partner
was gaoled,

considers the parallels with what
happened to Christopher Donnelly.

You can't do anything right.

And I always think of it as
if you offer to do the cooking,

you're the worst cook
in the world.

Then if you don't offer
to do the cooking,

it's, oh, well, you never cook.

So you're never ever right.

You're always wrong,
and there's so many examples.

Like, you're always walking
on eggshells, as they say.

And you're just so frightened
of doing anything wrong.

And then it gets to
the point where you...

almost try and avoid
any triggers

that you know
that will trigger her off.

You turn into just a robot,
and that's... you just...

that's just your way of life,
and you can't get out of it.

(David) In the vast majority
of domestic abuse cases,

men are the perpetrators.

But as detectives
consider a murder charge,

it's clear Hannegret Donnelly's
case is far from usual.

It's possible to divide
Hannegret's behaviour

into two different types of abuse.

So on the one hand,
there was very strong evidence

of systemic physical abuse...

beatings with
blunt objects, punching,

jabbing in Christopher's throat.

I suffered abuse for five years.

It started off with really small
little things that happened.

And it was simple things like,
oh, you can't wear those shoes.

I prefer these shoes.

Oh, you can't have
your hair like that.

I don't like the top
you're wearing.

I don't like the colour.

So that type of control was
down to Hannegret's desire

for knowledge of everything
that Christopher was doing,

where he was going,
what he was thinking,

withholding trips to the toilet,
withholding medical treatment,

complete control of
somebody else's life.

What's unusual here is that
that abuse does not

seem to be motivated,
as we might expect,

by any kind of anger
or hatred of her victim,

but rather by
an unquestioning belief

in her own absolute authority.

(Sarah) This very much speaks to
a woman who is a complete bully,

who is an abuser, and,
relatively unusually,

a physical abuser of a man,
but also a woman

who has no remorse and who
believes that her enjoyment

of life, her satisfaction,
and that avoiding any irritations

of her life are more important
than anything else.

It may even be that
she got perverse pleasure

out of tormenting her eventually
completely powerless husband.

(David) 9 out of 10
murder perpetrators are men.

But that does mean there
is a small group of women

who are prepared to use
lethal violence,

and Hannegret is
one of those people.

She was enjoying the control,
the total control,

that she exercised
over Christopher,

the way that she created
this isolated environment

in which she could
do as she pleased.

It's now believed that Christopher
suffered over a decade of abuse.

Throughout that entire time,
his physical condition meant

he was rendered effectively
defenceless.

So with every
subsequent act of violence

that she inflicted upon her
husband, he was weakened.

And therefore,
the next act of violence

became even more impactful,
was even more powerful,

had an even more powerful effect.

She reduced him over time almost
to the state of a wounded animal.

It was more like... so we had a
chase around the kitchen table.

Also, it was more...
yeah, sometimes just a... yeah.

(Detective)
Sorry, what did you say?

Chase around the kitchen table in
a more sort of light-hearted way.

(David) The picture
detectives are forming

is a living hell for a man
hidden in plain sight...

Christopher beaten,
scolded, trapped.

Alex Skeel understands
that feeling.

Yeah, you just don't want to leave
because you fear that

possibly something could happen
to the children.

She even threatened to kill me
if I tried to leave.

But you're just stuck.

(David) The police were now
uncovering the truly horrific

reality of life inside
the Donnelly family home.

(David) Four children were part
of the Donnelly family,

yet not one of them complained
about their mother's

treatment of their father.

Given the circumstances,
it's highly unlikely

that they would have been able to.

It doesn't surprise me
that none of the children

came forward to the authorities.

It's clear that Hannegret ruled
that family with a rod of iron.

And no doubt, anyone in
that family... children,

as well as Christopher...
were absolutely terrified of her.

(David) Because the family had
no visitors and saw few people,

Christopher had no sense of hope.

His children were isolated from
anyone who might help, too.

What shocked me the most was just
how vulnerable Christopher was,

and the fact that nobody
noticed that here was

a family with children who were
living on a very ordinary estate,

in a very ordinary town, and yet
somehow they went under the radar.

(David) The key to Hannegret's
long-term abuse of Christopher

was, in fact, ensuring
their children's silence.

You know, the children
weren't able to talk about

what it was that they saw,
the fact that their mother

was abusing their father.

The children's silence becomes
also a means by which we have

to recognise that this was
a very psychologically

controlling domestic environment.

And in that respect,
the children are also victims.

This systematic, psychological
controlled environment

creates almost a vacuum in
which it's possible

to physically abuse Christopher

for year after year after year.

Hannegret Donnelly's power over
Christopher was unquestionable.

The abuse was so frequent,
it became the norm.

The relationship dynamic
had shifted so completely

that Christopher
was unable to function

without his wife's say-so.

What is clear here is
that the level of control

and the level of abuse
made this

an almost everyday occurrence,
a level of abuse

that had simply become accepted.

It's just so lonely and dark.

And you don't have
anyone to talk to.

I can imagine there was
probably no conversations

that went on between them,
other than arguments.

It's just the way it is, and it's
really a horrible way to live.

I have read some reports
where Hannegret suggested

that Christopher almost
invited these beatings.

(tense music)

Well, I struggle to think that
a relationship that plumbed

to the depths that this did
was ever a relationship

that was ever built on equality.

(Donna Youngs) To me, it feels like
somebody who was almost

brainwashed as a child,
somebody who's come out

of some really kind of bizarre
childhood upbringing

that has taught her to think in
this way about human relationships

and about the need
to maintain control.

That's what I would suspect
with Hannegret.

(David) What we do know is
that her power over Christopher

was absolute.

After the police arrested
Hannegret, they seized her diary.

And among the entries in there
was clear evidence of abuse,

not least the fact that Hannegret
had refused to let her husband

go to the toilet.

And this withholding of a basic
human need is particularly cruel.

It's not just controlling,
but it's dehumanising.

And it's a particularly
shocking part of this case.

(David) It now seems likely
that Christopher Donnelly,

suffering from years of abuse,

actually thought he was the one
in the wrong.

Blaming it upon yourself when
you are a victim is quite common.

Most people that I've spoken to...

that's male, female,
whatever gender, age, ethnicity...

I've had thousands
of people message me...

they've all said the same thing.

I thought it was my fault,
when in fact, it isn't at all.

They're just made to believe that.

And that's why it kind
of makes it worse,

because I think
for a lot of people,

you try and sort of...

please them more
to make out that it isn't your...

because you just completely
feel it is your fault.

And you're doing something wrong,
so you try and change it.

But then it goes back
to what I was saying about

cooking the food
or not cooking the food.

It just goes back to that.

It's a vicious circle, and it just
goes round and round and round.

And I think, yeah, you do feel
as though it's your own fault.

But then part of you knows
that it isn't.

(David)
The problem facing detectives,

having amassed evidence of abuse
and control, is proving the murder.

If Hannegret is a killer,
how can they get her to confess?

To be honest,
Hannegret's perfectly composed

during her police interviews.

She's calm.

She doesn't feel under pressure.

She's simply selling her narrative.

And that's because she's lived
within an environment

in which her narrative,
her word, was law.

Why wouldn't it be law
in this environment, too?

An interview in a murder case
such as this,

there will be a formal strategy
which will be agreed

with the senior
investigating officer.

First of all, I tried to
sort this out with him

in sort of
a bantering sort of way.

(Neil)
The strategy would have been,

we need to find out
what's going on.

We need to get her talking.
That didn't seem to be a problem.

She seemed eager to talk.

And they would then be thinking,
I mean, obviously to prove murder,

they need to prove that she caused
really serious harm to him

and she intended to cause
really serious harm to him.

That would then prove murder,
bearing in mind he's dead,

if they can prove that
she inflicted the injury upon him

that resulted in his death.

Bantering, sort of.

(David)
During the police interviews,

it becomes quickly apparent that
for a person like Hannegret,

violence is a perfectly acceptable
tool to reinforce her dominance.

I did hit him
a bit harder sometimes.

Hannegret Donnelly's police
interviews are truly chilling.

I don't think I've ever
heard a criminal talk

in such a dispassionate way
about such a horrific crime.

As I said to the interviewer,
it wasn't that he sort of

fell over and lost consciousness.

She dismisses her actions as
banter and as normal behaviour

in a relationship and really shows
no sign of compassion

or love for the man
that she's killed.

It was more like
we had a chase around

the kitchen table,
or also it was more,

yeah, sometimes just a... yeah.

(Detective)
Sorry, what did you say?

Chase around the kitchen table in
a more sort of light-hearted way.

It was quite disturbing to watch.

She was incredibly calm,
not visibly distressed,

and almost matter-of-fact.

And she actually described
what had happened at the house

in almost a forensic level
of detail.

She would almost talk about that
there would be banter between them

while she was assaulting him.

It was an incredibly
cavalier view of what was

a terrible, systemic level
of violence towards her husband.

She came across as
incredibly cold and detached

from what must have been
an entirely horrific situation.

I'd like to know
what's going on, so...

It sounds very much as
if this woman was paranoid.

I would like to be informed
as to what is going on.

I don't like when people
talk behind my back.

She was absolutely determined
to be in control at all times,

and she didn't like
any secrets going on.

Now, that paranoia might have
meant that she felt that people

were scheming behind her back.

Heaven knows they had reason
to try and scheme and get away.

So it was all part of this
idea of keeping control.

This was clearly a woman who
was terrified of losing control.

I get upset when I feel that
there's some sort of things

going on that...
that I'm not told about.

That's why she had to
keep her family near her.

She kept them under her
thumb inside the home.

Now, that would mean that they
wouldn't feel they had anywhere

they could go and speak freely,
anywhere that they could

be themselves,
and of course,

anybody that they could turn
to for help.

I've met lots of criminals over
the course of my police career,

and I've researched even more as a
result of my crime-writing years.

I don't think I've ever come
across such a terrifying figure

as Hannegret Donnelly.

The lack of compassion and
the extent of her abuse

is truly horrific.

And arguably, if I wrote
a character that bad,

I'm not sure anyone would
believe that she could exist.

But then it did get...

(David) The primary
challenge for detectives

was forcing a confession
from Hannegret Donnelly.

As they applied pressure,
could the truth emerge from how

she reacted to their questioning?

Does that mean he's
fallen down the whole...

pretty much the whole flight
of stairs?

No, no.
As I said, he... he...

(Donna) It's an interesting,
gradual evolution of recognition

that she just might have
done something wrong.

He fell against a crate.

There was a crate,
and the crate got broken,

and then he cut himself.

(David) As Hannegret Donnelly
tries to explain away

her brutal treatment
of Christopher,

even the rolling pin attack, what
does her body language betray?

And how does it contradict
her claims about his death?

First of all, I tried to sort
things out with him in sort

of a bantering sort of way.

(David) Donnelly freely
admits hitting Christopher.

I punched him on
his nose severely,

because I was so angry with him.

But he didn't have such a big cut.

He had just a small cut.

(Detective) Do you
feel that hitting him

over the head with a rolling
pin, with a hairbrush,

using your hands and fists,

is a appropriate reaction to him

acting in that way,
being in his strange moods?

It's more like just
helping him to come out

of some sort of peculiar trance.

Just how uncomfortable
she's starting to feel,

we can see in the way that she
clenches her hands together,

as if trying to give herself
some kind of reassurance.

(Detective) But if
you're on the landing...

And there's the mystified
shaking of the head.

(Detective) Does that mean he's
falling down the whole... pretty

much the whole flight of stairs?

No, no.
As I said, he walked...

(Detective) These times
that you've hit him,

they weren't a result of
him being violent to you?

No.

During the interviews,
the detectives

tried to establish whether
Hannegret felt she was

justified in doing what she did.

(loud boom)

She did not.

(Detective) Within your family,
what would you say your role is?

Um...

Yeah, I don't know.

She pauses in annoyance.

She's annoyed at being
asked this question.

She thinks it's none of
the interviewer's business.

She has never had to explain
herself within her household.

(Hannegret) I'd like to
know what's going on, so...

Yeah.

I'd like to be informed
as to what is going on.

I don't like... like it when
people talk behind my back.

(David) I was quite intrigued
by the interview footage taken

by the police that
Hannegret never identifies

a family member by their name.

It's always kind of anonymized.

The environment doesn't
include individuals.

It's just simply the family.

She likes to be informed
about what's going on,

but no-one is ever mentioned.

No-one ever gets an identity.

They lack identity
in her language, because

she hasn't given them an identity.

They merely are
extensions of herself.

I get upset when I feel that
there's some sort of

things going on that...
that I'm not told about.

There's no indication in her
face, her expression, her body

language, that she's aware that
what she's saying is in any way

potentially offensive.

It's... it's more like this...

Helping him to come out of
some sort of peculiar trance.

No, I can't say it's a trance,
but it's a sort of peculiar,

yeah, feeling, feeling strangely.

I don't know.

This is very interesting,
where, for a moment,

she gives up for just a moment.

She's exhausted by the questions.

This is the first flicker
of recognition to herself

that she's guilty
but also that she maybe

be being seen as guilty
by the interviewer,

that she may have lost
her hold on control.

(David) The use of
the word "trance"

by Donnelly may have some
element of truth behind it,

again, because of
Christopher's condition.

Bronchopneumonia can cause
a wide variety of symptoms.

But of course, it can have an
impact on your mental state,

because if you're lacking
oxygen to the brain,

and if you have germs
flooding around your body,

you can feel lightheaded.

You can feel dizzy.
You can feel confused.

And it's entirely possible that
your level of consciousness would

drop so that you would enter what
his wife described as a,

"trance-like state."

No normal wife would
dream of dealing with that

by hitting him with a rolling pin
to knock it out of him.

(David) But that is
exactly what she did,

regardless of whether
she's prepared to admit it.

There's a lot of pride in
the general body language here.

There's a refusal to alter
her expression,

whatever the interviewer
throws at her.

The expression is just
maintained throughout.

There's no natural response,
and that that's an indication

of a lot of pride
in the personality.

Hannegret had clearly lost touch
with any shred of common decency.

She would beat Christopher
if he didn't answer a question

quickly enough or if she felt
he was in some kind of trance.

She was evil.
She terrified him.

And she ran that house
through fear and intimidation.

One can only imagine
what horrors

the children may have
seen or heard.

I feel sorry for him,
but again, I just feel...

I know how he was
feeling at that time.

I knew my body was shutting down,
and I was waiting to die.

I just thought, well,
the next time I get

stabbed,
next time I get hit,

it's going to be
in the wrong place,

or the knife's going to go
a little bit deeper,

or go in the wrong way.

And eventually, I just...
my body would shut down,

and I can completely...

I'm uncomfortable
thinking about it.

(David)
Dehumanising Christopher,

which is precisely what Hannegret
did, helped her justify

the beatings she inflicted.

So Hannegret is what we call
a "victim as object" murderer,

meaning that she doesn't see
her victim as fully human,

so that actually they're not that
relevant to her as an individual

in any kind of emotional sense.

And the murders, the murders
in these types of cases,

can often be the incidental,
the consequences simply,

of her enactment of her
absolute control on an object.

The murder is often incidental.

(David) I get the
distinct impression

that because of the
systematic abuse

that Christopher had suffered
that he no longer has,

in Hannegret's mind,
the status of being human,

that he's been reduced
to being an object.

He's denied his humanity.

And because
he's denied his humanity,

that, perversely,
will allow the abuse to escalate.

Because once you deny that
someone is the same as you,

that someone is lesser than you,

it is much easier
to cause them harm.

Hannegret's initial wounding
charge is escalated to murder

after all the forensic,
post-mortem,

and interview evidence is collated.

Despite the massive
amount of evidence,

she enters a not guilty plea.

(Neil) She also maintained
the fact that she never

intended to kill her husband.

Despite her not guilty plea,
she was found unanimously guilty

by the jury on the
20th of March, 2019,

and sentenced to life imprisonment
with a minimum term of 16 years.

(ominous music)

(David) Hannegret Donnelly is
statistically a very rare killer.

Coercion and murder are
much more often perpetrated

by men in domestic abuse cases.

But as Alex Skeel discovered,
violence can come from anybody.

Christopher Donnelly
discovered that, too.

At the start of
our relationship,

it was the first relationship that
I had, so everything felt normal.

But obviously, now I can look
back and see things and go,

well, that wasn't,
but at the time, I was happy.

It was nice to sort
of tell your mates

that you went out at the
weekend and just felt normal.

But obviously, things steadily
gets worse and worse and worse

and worse and worse, and then...

I just find it weird
that I was

sort of a young person
in sixth form.

And then five years later,
for no fault of my own,

I was about two weeks away,
10 days, from dying.

And I could feel that happening.

But it wasn't my fault
that that was happening.

It was just a terrible
place to be in.

And there's nothing
I could have done about it,

because I literally had no money.

(David) Hannegret Donnelly
had beaten and coerced

her husband,
taking complete control

of his life and their children.

It was the years of
degradation and abuse

that led directly to
his physical collapse.

When he contracted pneumonia,
his life was on the line,

not because of the illness,

but because of his wife.

(Clare)
It might be easy to assume

that the most shocking
element of this case

is that the offender
is a woman.

We are perhaps very used
to domestic violence

being committed by men.

But men are victims of domestic
violence far too often.

And what this case shows is
that this is a very real problem

that needs to be addressed,
regardless of the genders

of the people involved.

(David) Hannegret Donnelly will not
be eligible for parole until 2034.

Safeguards are now in place
for the couple's four children.

Hannegret Donnelly wasn't
convicted of murdering her husband

because of a single blow.

She was convicted of murdering
Christopher Donnelly after years

of prolonged and systematic
physical abuse.

You know, there are
already a number of pressures

to keep the victims
of domestic abuse silent.

And I think we have to
acknowledge through this case

and through other cases
which are similar

that there are equal,
if not greater,

pressures on men who are suffering
domestic abuse to keep silent, too.

(dramatic music)

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