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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a potential homicide, according to demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

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.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

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

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation 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 self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, 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 prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the matter 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 established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”