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Every suicide where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible murder case, as per demands from campaigners who aim to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I required as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively 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 Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

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

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