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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had endured domestic violence must be considered a potential homicide, as per demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

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

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report 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 hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my daughter 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 said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual 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 nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

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

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

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

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

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around homicide 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 inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider 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 partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with police 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 wrongdoings.”