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Every suicide where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to report 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 bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action 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 four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, 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 investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they abused, including in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”