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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced abuse at home should be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from campaigners who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a significant gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

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

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after finding out 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 needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

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

“We must use the legislation we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death 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 told their stories.

A junior minister 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, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

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