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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be considered a possible murder case, according to calls from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her former partner to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently 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 legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum 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 endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon 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 struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since when an individual takes their own life 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 already possess properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

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

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, 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 simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence 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 known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”