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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a potential homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

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

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, she 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 begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told 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 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 four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The parent 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 said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you consider the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors 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 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 types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”