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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a potential murder case, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of suicide after family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum 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 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 went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured 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 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 investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, 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 incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you look at the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”