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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured domestic violence must be considered a possible homicide, according to calls from campaigners who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, 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.

“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 lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess properly and it is not occurring 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 police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families 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 result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a partner they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”