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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible murder case, according to demands from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders to justice in instances of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a leader of a campaign group during a significant meeting in London earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

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 ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for over three years. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to disclose 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 new law to hold offenders to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for a long time 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

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

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, 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 partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down 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 proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. In truth, 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 pleaded with them to look into what he had done to her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“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 multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “because 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 murder.

“We need to apply the laws we already possess effectively and it really isn’t happening at the present, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, 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, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you look at the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the legal body said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”