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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a possible homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; 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 fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down before her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found 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 fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, 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 did this to her walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into 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 death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

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

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”