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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a possible murder case, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required 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 police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four 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 offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mother to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we label it suicide, 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. In truth, she 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 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 death. 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 self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have properly 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 need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

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

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background 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 cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”