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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide after family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation 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 determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening 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 law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

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 said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider 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 collaborating with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”