🔗 Share this article

Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home should be considered a potential homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a landmark meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later 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 decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she explained.

“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 years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah 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 investigate what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

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 examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”