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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a possible homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I required as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was critical “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

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

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”