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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had endured domestic violence must be treated as a potential murder case, according to demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences 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.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a leader of a campaign group at a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose 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; however she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down before her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and including 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 decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. 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, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”