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Every suicide in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be considered a potential murder case, as per calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother 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 police, providing a two-hour video interview as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mother to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who caused this walked free, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must apply the laws we already possess properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”