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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, as per demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately 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 informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

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

“We must use the legislation 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 police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you look at the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”