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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be considered a potential murder case, as per demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down before her death by the police and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively and it is not occurring 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 prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, 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 simple 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.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”