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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a another victim stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities 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 continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, 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 endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“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 four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

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

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

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

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”