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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a potential murder case, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a leader of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change 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 wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down before her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they had 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 added. “I was so shocked 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 brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, 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 mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, 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 haven’t been able to move on. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. 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 inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they abused, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”