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Every suicide where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a potential homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

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

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman stepped up 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 bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child 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.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into 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 homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

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

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”