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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be treated as a potential homicide, according to demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her former partner to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to disclose 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 hold offenders accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws 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 do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter Hannah died 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 stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call 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. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, 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, required five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable 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 take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder 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, 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 extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police 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 wrongdoings.”