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Every suicide where the victim had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a potential murder case, as per calls from advocates who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a campaign group during a landmark meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the legal framework, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down 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 only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child 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 caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, 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 dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was informed 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, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined self-inflicted death, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we already possess properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation 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 attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, 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, especially when you consider the matter of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”