Suicides Linked to Family Violence Should Be Investigated as Potential Homicides, Urge British Relatives

Every suicide in which the deceased had endured domestic violence must be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of suicide after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a landmark meeting in London recently.

The meeting, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was later jailed for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, 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 weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been failed previous to her taking her life by the authorities 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 astonished to see so many families who have been battling the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively 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 law enforcement 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.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially 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 said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the full extent of their crimes.”