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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured domestic violence should be treated as a potential homicide, according to demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a significant meeting in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then realized that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted 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 police and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” 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 mum to her kids, 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 dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“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 the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis 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 inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context 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 proceedings which are ongoing.

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