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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced domestic violence must be considered a possible homicide, as per calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a leader of a campaign group during a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

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

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed 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 lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement 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 hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” 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, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you look at the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”