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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months 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 decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied 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 daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

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

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

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