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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be treated as a potential murder case, as per demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark meeting in London recently.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“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 before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service 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

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, 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 two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see 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 move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable 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 the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, 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 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 incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”