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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured domestic violence should be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a landmark meeting in Westminster recently.

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

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence 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 second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered 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 current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation 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 including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the issue of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

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