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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you consider the issue of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence 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 cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”