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Every suicide where the victim had endured abuse at home should be treated as a possible murder case, as per calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation 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 police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

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

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. 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 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 fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

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 must apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“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 judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “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, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

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