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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a potential homicide, as per demands from campaigners who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide after family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim 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 bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked 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.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate 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 death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see 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 domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“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 require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by 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 own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. 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, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”