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Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in cases of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her former partner to police, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed 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 harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring 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 her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “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 partnership 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 way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly 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 told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations 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 leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

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