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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home must be considered a potential homicide, according to calls from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

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

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

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

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in spring 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, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label 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 move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

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

“We need to apply the laws we already possess 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 require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

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

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are actively advised 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 several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings 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 full extent of their crimes.”