‘Intimate terrorism’: how an abusive relationship led a young woman to kill her partner

Fri Martin’s whole life was controlled by her violent partner until she stabbed him to death. Now her lawyers are challenging her murder conviction. By Sophie Elmhirst

That day, 20 November 2014, the argument was about a hundred things, but mostly it was about cigarettes and milk. Farieissia Martin and Kyle Farrell were always arguing about something. They’d been like that ever since they first got together, aged 16. On again, then off again. Now 21, Kyle and Fri, as everyone called her, had two young daughters, but they still fought constantly. They loved each other too much, their friends said.

Fri and Kyle didn’t live together, at least not officially. Kyle still lived with his parents in Toxteth in Liverpool, but he was always over at Fri’s, a few streets away. Fri lived with the girls in a small red terraced house on Charlecote Street, a pretty road that slopes steeply down towards the River Mersey. There are hanging baskets outside the houses, flowerbeds filled with lavender and primroses. From the top of the street you can see across the grey water to hills in the distance.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2C0hd5L