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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a possible murder case, as per calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

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

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts 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 proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, 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 two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. 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 investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister 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 isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances 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 causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”