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Every suicide in which the deceased had endured domestic violence should be considered a potential homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a leader of a campaign group during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, 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 went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action 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 lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “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 must apply the laws we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting 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: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“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 to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”