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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

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

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

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 parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed 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 several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”