🔗 Share this article

Every suicide in which the victim had endured domestic violence must be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

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

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted 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 police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, 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 inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted 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 found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

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

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide 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 inhabit today.

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

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”