🔗 Share this article

Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, as per demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers responsible for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of suicide after family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative 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 Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman 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 bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that laws were existing, 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 let down before her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, 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 was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we label 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. In truth, 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 look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “since 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 effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, 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 prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

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 parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, 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 said. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you look at the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they mistreated, including in cases which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”