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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a potential murder case, as per demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

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

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman 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 to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities 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 only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the police and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’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 vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“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 investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we currently have properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

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

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

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

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