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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their behavior.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases 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 warrant,” remarked a leader of a campaign group during a landmark meeting in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide after domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently 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 existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah died in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case 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 killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister 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, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

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

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 domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”