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Questions whether a history of abuse gives victims a right to strike back and injure and sometimes murder their abusers. In the US Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband's penis after he had raped her following a long period of brutal treatment. Her husband was prosecuted for marital attack but acquitted; his wife awaits trial. Lyle and Eric Menendes are now facing trial after confessing to the murder of their parents, alleging a lifetime of sexual abuse. The cases of Felicity Greenham, Michael Smith and Karen Tyler are also reported. It is feared that lenient sentences could set a pattern for the abused to commit crimes against their abusers in the knowledge that they will recieve lenient sentences.