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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a potential homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a leader of a campaign group at a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

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

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to disclose 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 bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked 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 didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement 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 homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have 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 police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they abused, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”