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Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence must be treated as a possible homicide, as per calls from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a leader of a campaign group at a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah 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 exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

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

The parent told the meeting that for a decade 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 critical “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement 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 crimes.”