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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a potential homicide, according to demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

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

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled 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 self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“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 four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have properly 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 the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

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