It was abolished in England and Wales by section 177 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which came into force on 13 May 2014.
[2] What had remained of the original common law defence of marital coercion at the date of abolition was contained in section 47 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925:[3] Any presumption of law that an offence committed by a wife in the presence of her husband is committed under the coercion of the husband is hereby abolished, but on a charge against a wife for any offence other than treason or murder it shall be a good defence to prove that the offence was committed in the presence of, and under the coercion of, the husband.Section 37 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 (c.15) (N.I.)
[9] However no action was taken until after Vicky Pryce advanced the defence of marital coercion at her 2013 trial for perverting the course of justice.
She argued that she falsely accepted penalty points under the coercion of her former husband and Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne MP.
In Ireland the case of State (DPP) v Walsh and Conneely in 1981 found that presumption of marital coercion had not survived the enactment of the 1937 Constitution and so the defence is no longer available there.