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Every suicide where the victim had endured domestic violence should be considered a possible homicide, according to demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders accountable in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”