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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had endured abuse at home must be treated as a potential murder case, as per demands from campaigners who aim to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in Westminster recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term 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 mother decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“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 such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had done to 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 changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

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

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement 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 hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives 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 chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges 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 several individuals for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, including in cases which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”