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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be considered a potential murder case, as per demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

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

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked 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 didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. 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 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 passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

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

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