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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

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

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership 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 discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister 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 passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother 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 endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, 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 no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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 said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, 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 pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges 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 government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

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

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