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Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be considered a possible homicide, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their behavior.

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

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

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives 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 fighting the police and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

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

“We must use the legislation we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim 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 recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”