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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had endured abuse at home should be considered a potential murder case, according to demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct 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 parent chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted 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, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you look at the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, including in cases which are ongoing.

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