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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from advocates who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down previous to her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 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 exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, 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 nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted 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, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable 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 prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister 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 actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”