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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured abuse at home should be considered a possible murder case, as per demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, united families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

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 informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim 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 bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed before her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found 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 police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, 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 were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see 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 family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it is not occurring 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 prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“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 common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, 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 look at the issue of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations 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 leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

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