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Every suicide in which the deceased had endured domestic violence should be considered a potential homicide, as per demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman 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 legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I required as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“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 fighting the police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“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 lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”