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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced domestic violence should be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a another victim 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; however she then realized that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I required as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” 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 offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally 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 told that there was nothing 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, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

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

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

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

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”