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Every suicide where the victim had endured abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a significant gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for change in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview 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 later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into 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 homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”