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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible homicide, as per calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in Westminster recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman 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 new law to hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“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 man who did this to her walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into 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 struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores 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 endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, 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 cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”