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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home should be considered a potential murder case, as per calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been let down before her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, 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 nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade 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 critical “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”