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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible homicide, as per calls from campaigners who aim to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child 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 about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it suicide, 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. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is obvious”.

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

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

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

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths 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 isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Particularly 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 outdated, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”