🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be treated as a potential homicide, according to calls from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark meeting in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months 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 accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities 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 inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws 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.

“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 the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and including 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 result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed 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 several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”