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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had endured domestic violence should be considered a potential homicide, according to demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to disclose 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 hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted 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 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 impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

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

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally 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 informed 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 struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was vital “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, 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 conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death 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 bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister 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 result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you look at the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”