Suicides Connected to Domestic Abuse Should Be Investigated as Possible Murders, Demand British Relatives

Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible murder case, according to calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This step is essential because law enforcement are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a leader of a campaign group during a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to fight for reform in the legal framework, united families who had suffered bereavement to suicide after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed before her death by the police and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been battling the police and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. 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 investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

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

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

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Family violence is a terrible offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

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

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