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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had endured abuse at home should be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group at a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, 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.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations 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 abused, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”