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Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a potential murder case, as per calls from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual 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 did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”

Political Response

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

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you consider 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 prosecutors 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 manipulative conduct.

“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 also working with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”