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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had endured abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the legal framework, united relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced 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 chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. 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 investigate 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 homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

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

“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 pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, 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 incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

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

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”