🔗 Share this article

Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence must be treated as a potential murder case, according to calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been let down before her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving 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 endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, she 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 inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service 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 Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”