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Every suicide where the deceased had endured abuse at home should be treated as a potential murder case, according to demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide after family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; however she then realized that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died 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, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was critical “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable 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 prosecute. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

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

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they abused, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”