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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in Westminster recently.

The meeting, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later jailed for an additional term after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

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

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse 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 cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”