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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had endured abuse at home must be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently jailed 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 new law to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life 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 dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we call 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, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, 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 no action 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 had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found 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 establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively and it is not occurring 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 conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, 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 currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working 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.”