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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from campaigners who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant gathering in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

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

After her death, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter 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 caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years 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 dismantled gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. 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 told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“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 lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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 said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

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

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

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

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, 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 challenging, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances 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 abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”