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Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after 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 informed her ex-boyfriend to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful 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 didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since when an individual 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 is not occurring at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that words and control can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

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

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider 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 in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”