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Every suicide in which the deceased had endured domestic violence should be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from campaigners who aim to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

This step is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman came forward 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 new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum 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 said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate 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, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was critical “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation 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 police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with common law practices 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 easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”