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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a potential murder case, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization at a landmark meeting in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to suicide after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

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

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

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

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We require determination, 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 kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”