🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

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

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders accountable; however she then realized that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, 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 no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary 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 Parliament, led 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 dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, 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. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

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

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”