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Every suicide in which the victim had endured abuse at home must be treated as a potential homicide, as per calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. 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 parent decided to campaign for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after learning 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 practices required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. 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 pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted 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 huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges 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 opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated 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 spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances 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 abused, including in cases which are currently active.

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