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Every suicide where the victim had endured abuse at home must be treated as a potential homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, 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 over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled 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 close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the government official, 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 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 are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider 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 several individuals for causing the death of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

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