🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had endured domestic violence should be treated as a possible murder case, as per demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the legal framework, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman 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 bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that regulations 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 already there, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action 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 changed nothing. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder 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 use the legislation we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable 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 prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”