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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced abuse at home must be considered a possible murder case, as per calls from campaigners who aim to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in London recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

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

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

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter 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.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” 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 went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“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 need the will, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

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