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Every suicide in which the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, as per calls from advocates who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders accountable; however she then realized that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been let down before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’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 energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. 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 physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, including in cases which are ongoing.

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