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Every suicide in which the deceased had endured domestic violence should be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to suicide after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months 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 hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “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 systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man 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 remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. 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 inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted 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 death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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 said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to understand that words and control can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed 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 are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

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 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 partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”