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Every suicide where the victim had experienced abuse at home must be considered a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. 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 legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, 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 explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. 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 look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent 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 “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must 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 need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Family violence 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 family violence or other manipulative conduct.

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

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