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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had endured domestic violence should be treated as a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in Westminster recently.

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

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the police and many other agencies, they had 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 guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah died in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, 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. In truth, she 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 begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible offense 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 domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”