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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced abuse at home should be considered a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of self-inflicted death 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,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a second woman 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 new law to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I required as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving 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 endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, 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 let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”