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Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be considered a potential murder case, as per demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found 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 could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

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

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, 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 did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since 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 homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, 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 written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

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