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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced domestic violence should be considered a potential homicide, as per calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the legal framework, united relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, 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 homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”