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Every suicide where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be considered a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a campaign group at a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership 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 could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, 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 is not occurring at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”