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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action 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 four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the moment, 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 Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

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

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”