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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a possible homicide, according to calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced 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 parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

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

“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 the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths 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, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of murder, 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 prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”