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Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced domestic violence must be considered a possible murder case, as per demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death 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 deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the legal framework, united families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to disclose 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 to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“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 so many families who have been fighting the police and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, 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 psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally 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 informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation 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 found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening 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 take legal action. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”