TEN YEARS AGO, Helen Archer stabbed her husband Rob Titchener in BBC Radio 4′s The Archers.
Rob Titchener’s campaign of coercive control carried out against Helen caused a sensation in Britain in 2016.
An Irish audience may be only vaguely familiar with The Archers, the jewel in the crown of the BBC Radio 4 schedule. The 15-minute radio drama of rural folk in some shire of middle England, that mythical place halfway between Hampstead and Surrey, is the longest-running daily serial in the world.
Rob Titchener’s campaign of emotional abuse against Helen Archer triggered a national debate on domestic violence and coercive control in the UK. I lived there at the time, and I was absolutely hooked and horrified on the daily.
Absolutely nothing could stop me turning in every evening at 7.03pm to hear what subtle insult, cruel manipulation or sly humiliation Rob would inflict on his wife next.
I am quite a cynical person when it comes to these things, but the writers laid the plot out meticulously in increments over a two-year period. It made for compelling and uncomfortable listening.
The drama ignited a national discussion. Indeed, as the Irish Independent reported at the time, thousands contacted Action Line after the storyline of abuse.
I remember listening with an increasing sense of dread and fear as Rob tightened the noose around the neck of a once confident Helen. He controlled what she wore, who she saw and spoke to, isolating her from her friend Kirsty. The depiction of his cold rationality in the face of Helen’s justified but out-of-control hysterics was compelling.
My stomach would drop when I heard Rob’s voice on the radio.
And then I realised that is how partners all over the country feel when an abusive partner comes in the door, in real life.
Rob begins to turn Helen’s son, Henry, against her. Rob’s question, “Do you know what “obedient” means?”, to Henry is up there on the fear factor scale with ”I’m not gonna to be ignored” by Glen Close in Fatal Attraction, or the terrifyingly simple, “Hello Clarice” spoken by Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
Finally, Helen snaps and stabs Rob in self-defence, which leads to a gripping criminal trial where she was eventually found not guilty.
The real world story
“I’m telling you that Rob Titchener is the worst kind of abuser, because he doesn’t leave bruises. He lies and he bullies and he manipulates,” one of the characters says later in the story arc and the law started to catch on to that idea.
Coercive control was made an offence in Ireland in the Domestic Violence Act 2018 (two years after The Archers’ storyline).
The first conviction was in February 2020 when a man pleaded guilty at Letterkenny Circuit Court to charges which included harassment, making threats to damage property and coercive control.
Evidence was given of thousands of phone calls made by the defendant to this partner over a period of four months in 2019 and of him forcing her to carry her mobile at all times and compelling her to use FaceTime to prove where she was and who she was with.
Other acts included an assault, property damage and threats of harm which were recorded and played to the court.
Coercive control is an offence included in the new Jennie’s Law – also the Domestic Violence Judgments Register Act 2026 – which was signed into law on 21 July 2026. Jennie’s Law was named after Jennifer Poole, a 24-year-old mother of two who was murdered by her former partner Gavin Murphy in 2021. Murphy attacked and stabbed Ms Poole seven times, killing her. He later pleaded guilty to murder in 2022.
Ms Poole did not know that Gavin Murphy had a history of abusive behaviour including a previous domestic violence conviction. He was jailed for two years for attacking a former partner and her mother with a knife in 2015.
Jennifer Poole
Jennie’s Law amends the Domestic Violence Act 2018 to establish a public register containing court-ordered judgments of serious domestic violence convictions. The Register will be hosted on the website of the Courts Service. This is in addition to any media reporting and will increase transparency.
The trial judge retains discretion to publish judgments for convictions of serious offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape, assault causing harm and non-consensual image distribution which can be recorded on the public register.
A flaw?
Coercive control is an offence included under the act, so a conviction for this offence could result in the offender being included on the public register. Publication requires the consent of the victim and convicted individuals can apply to the court for removal from the register – but no earlier than three years after serving their sentence.
It is notable, however, that if a person is convicted of the summary-only offence of common assault under section 2 of the Non-fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997, this will not be included in the register.
Perhaps inclusion of such an offence would be seen as disproportionate and open to challenge. But in my experience (in London), prosecutorial offices often charge down in domestic violence cases.
This means an offence that constitutes serious harm under section 3, is charged down to common assault to avoid the possibility of a jury trial, which can take longer than a summary-only offence of common assault.
Even if a person is convicted of a number of lesser assaults, they will not be included in the register. Sadly, it is often the case that abusers carry out repeated lesser assaults in a long campaign of abuse, which only culminates in a very serious assault much later.
Jennie’s Law is certainly a welcome addition when it comes to tackling domestic abuse.
But it is always worth remembering that not all domestic abusers leave bruises, and even if it can’t be used in all cases of assault, Jennie’s Law can be used to warn against coercive control.
Life, in the case of coercive control and domestic abuse, unfortunately imitates fiction.
Laura Perrins is a mother of four and writes on Substack at The West Brit.