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Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in Westminster recently.

The meeting, arranged by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum 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 was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting 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 campaign was vital “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

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

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you look at the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases 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 leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”