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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced abuse at home should be considered a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a leader of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the legal framework, united families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated 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 self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. 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 look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”