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Every suicide in which the deceased had endured domestic violence should be treated as a potential murder case, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later 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 parent chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“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 went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

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

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

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices 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 easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate 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 in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

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