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Every suicide where the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was critical “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to understand that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you look at the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances 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 causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”