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Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, according to demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This step 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 fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in London recently.

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

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman 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 to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 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, really loving mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months 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 path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately 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.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

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

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“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 full extent of their crimes.”