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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible homicide, as per demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for reform in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation we currently have properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can cause death just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. 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, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

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