Warning: This article contains graphic details.
UK MPs, senior lawyers and women's organisations are taking a stand against the increasing use of "rough sex gone wrong" as a courtoom defence for men accused of injuring or murdering women.
The campaign group We Can't Consent to This found that 57 women and five men have been killed in the UK by men who claim it was consensual violent sex "gone wrong".
According to their data sample, 30 women and girls have been killed in alleged "rough sex gone wrong" in the last decade. Nine of the suspects were charged with manslaughter while two received no conviction.
In the majority of the cases, the male suspects claimed significant or fatal injuries were subjected during consensual sex games, "kinky" or "rough" sex, BDSM or role-play.
During Grace Millane's murder trial in Auckland, defence lawyer Ian Brookie told the jury that Millane had died during an "ordinary", "consensual" and "casual sexual encounter between a young couple".
"[It was an] unforeseen and unintended consequence. Put simply this death was an accident. He certainly didn't murder her," Brookie insisted.
Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey told the court: "You can't consent to your own murder."
"We do not believe that women can consent to their grievous injury or death," We Can't Consent to This states on its website.
The campaign was established by actuary Fiona Mackenzie in response to the public outcry following the death of 26-year-old Natalie Connolly in 2016.
Connolly's former partner, property tycoon John Broadhurst, received a sentence of three years and eight months for manslaughter - despite Connolly having 40 separate injuries, including internal trauma, bleach on her face and a fractured eye socket.
Although the defence of "rough sex gone wrong" holds no official status in law, campaigners claim it can influence judges and prosecutors to reduce the sentence or a charge from murder to manslaughter, respectively.
"Women monitoring femicides in the UK believe the so-called 'rough sex defence' is growing... it sets women up to be harmed in life and grossly insulted after their deaths," Sarah Green, the director of the End Violence Against Women coalition, told The Guardian.
Barrister and law professor Susan Edwards told the outlet that the "rough sex" defence is connected to a "greater acceptance of BDSM" - a claim campaigners largely link to the increasing normalisation and accessibility of violent pornography.
UK MPs Harriet Harman and Mark Garnier have put forward changes to the UK's Domestic Abuse Bill, lambasting the "rough sex gone wrong" defence in a July article for the Huffington Post.
"We need to change the law and the Domestic Abuse Bill gives us that opportunity... In the 1993 case of R v Brown, the House of Lords ruled that if the injuries were serious, a defendant cannot claim as a defence that the victim consented," the MPs wrote.
"That was a case where a man had inflicted GBH [grievous bodily harm] on his gay lover. But we need that in statute so that it is under the noses of the Crown Prosecution Services and judges."
Mackenzie has expressed support for Harman and Garnier's pledge of action, telling The Guardian that people "need to stop buying into" the defence.
In their quest to have the excuse added to the Domestic Abuse Bill, Harman and Garnier have compared the courtroom defence to the modern version of "she was asking for it".
If you have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment or assault and would like to speak to someone, you could call the HELP support service.
Auckland: (09) 623 1700 or visit helpauckland.org.nz
Wellington: (04) 801 6655 or visit wellingtonhelp.org.nz