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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had endured abuse at home must be treated as a potential homicide, according to demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to 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 struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively 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 require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world 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 look at the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

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

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”