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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be considered a possible homicide, as per calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of suicide after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later sentenced 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 new law to hold offenders accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” 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 so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual 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. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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 self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to use the legislation we currently have properly and it is not occurring 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 investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the government official, 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 chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you look at the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases 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, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”