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Every suicide in which the deceased had endured abuse at home must be treated as a potential homicide, according to demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

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

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down before her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found 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 CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving 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 explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off 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 aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

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