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Every suicide where the victim had endured abuse at home should be treated as a potential murder case, as per demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide after family violence.

“In case after case, 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 at a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

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

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

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

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

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