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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a possible homicide, as per demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in cases of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant gathering in London earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life 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 dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because 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 homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively 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 require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“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 complete scope of their crimes.”