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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had endured abuse at home should be treated as a possible homicide, according to demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in London recently.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because 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 murder.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives 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, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

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

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”