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Every suicide where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families 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 battling the authorities and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted 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 was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. 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 investigate what he had done to her, I was informed 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, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we recognize 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 regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges 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 causing the death of a companion they mistreated, including in cases which are ongoing.

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