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Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in London recently.

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

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence 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 an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then realized that regulations 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 child had been let down before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

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

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately 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 no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. 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 substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”