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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a potential homicide, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark meeting in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the police and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child 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 energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder 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 homicide.

“We must use the legislation we currently have properly 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 police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, 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: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide 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, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases 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 hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”