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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down before her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening 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 take legal action. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, 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 extremely complicated 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: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

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