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Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence must be treated as a potential homicide, according to calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

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

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child 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 child Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“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 caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“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 two year period, 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 nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation 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.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, 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 opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we acknowledge 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 self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”