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Every suicide where the victim had experienced abuse at home must be considered a potential homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of suicide following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for an additional term after a second woman came forward 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 bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down before 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.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. 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 done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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

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

“We must use the legislation 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 need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices 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 extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner 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 clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”