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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, as per calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

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

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator 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 mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; however she then realized that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

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

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. 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 look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it really isn’t happening 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 law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society 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 look at the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”