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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a possible homicide, as per demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months 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 chose to advocate for a new law to hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the authorities 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 were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

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