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

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to suicide after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later 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.

In the wake of her loss, 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 were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I required as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she took her own life 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 controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told 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, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, 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 traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate 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 causing the death of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”