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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be considered a potential murder case, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a landmark meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide after family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced 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 decided to campaign for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then realized that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the police and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. 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.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it is not occurring 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 police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives 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, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, 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 fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you look at the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”