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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

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

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

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

In the wake of her loss, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down before her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this 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 haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, 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.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

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

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to understand that words and control can kill 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 grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed 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 are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

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