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Every suicide in which the victim had endured abuse at home should be considered a possible homicide, according to calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the legal framework, united families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

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

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required as existing laws were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, 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 conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed 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 path ahead. The man who caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately 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 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 found death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t 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, honestly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”