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Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence must be treated as a potential murder case, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four 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 prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her kids, and she died by suicide 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 broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The parent told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the issue of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”