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Every suicide where the deceased had endured abuse at home must be treated as a possible homicide, according to demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I required as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece 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.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine 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 make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a terrible crime 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 causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”