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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

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

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years 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.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider homicide allegations 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 leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”