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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be considered a possible murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a leader of a campaign group during a landmark gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later jailed for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

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

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, 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 systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, 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 begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

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

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you look at the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”