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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. 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 parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down before her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she said.

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

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, Hannah 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 told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

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

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges 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 Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do 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 are aware,” she stated. “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 outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you look at the matter of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed 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 causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”