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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured abuse at home should be treated as a possible murder case, according to demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following 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, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently 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.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child 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 Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, 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.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered 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 driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

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

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do 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 unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, 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, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

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

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”