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Every suicide in which the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a possible homicide, according to demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a landmark meeting in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months 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 decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the police and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, 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 astonished to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “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 aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the issue of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”