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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured domestic violence must be treated as a possible murder case, according to demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide after family violence.

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

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered 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 current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, 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, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. 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.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening 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 law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. 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.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, 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, in truth, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

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

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you consider the issue of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed 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 causing the death of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”