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Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a leader of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, 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 fighting the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” 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 mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering 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 critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. 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 physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”