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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be treated as a potential murder case, as per calls from campaigners who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later sentenced 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 parent chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning 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 said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly 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 passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the present, 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 prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives 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.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, 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, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases 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 abused, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”