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Every suicide in which the deceased had endured abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, as per demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in London recently.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the legal framework, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, 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 needed to change,” she explained.

“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 fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, 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 haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, 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 could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. 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 multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because 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 murder.

“We must use the legislation we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis 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 easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”