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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible murder case, as per demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough 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 seriousness they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up 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 hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, 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 didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“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 judges to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

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 domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

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

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”