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Every suicide where the deceased had endured abuse at home must be treated as a possible homicide, as per demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I required as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, 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 did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

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

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider 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 companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”