🔗 Share this article

Every suicide in which the deceased had endured domestic violence must be considered a possible homicide, as per demands 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 bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a campaign group at a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to advocate for reform in the legal framework, united relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. 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 parent decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found 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 police and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother 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 was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. 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.

“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 four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, 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 driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors 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 previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

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