Self-inflicted deaths Connected to Family Violence Should Be Probed as Potential Homicides, Urge UK Relatives

Every suicide in which the victim had endured abuse at home should be considered a potential homicide, according to calls from campaigners who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London recently.

The meeting, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

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

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman stepped up to disclose 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 to justice; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down before her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah died in May 2017, in what she called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her went unpunished, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. 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 look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must 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.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

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

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths 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 isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society 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 matter of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

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

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators accountable for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”