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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a potential homicide, according to demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a landmark meeting in London recently.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally 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 were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

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

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, 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 easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”