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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a possible homicide, as per calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

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

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things 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 such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, 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. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, 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 were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation 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 police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “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 outdated, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”