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Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence must be treated as a potential homicide, as per demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders accountable in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her former partner to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a another victim stepped up to report 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 hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down before her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling 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 impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation 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 death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence 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 obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. 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 kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

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

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted 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 stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”