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Each self-inflicted death in which the deceased had experienced abuse at home must be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death 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,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization at a landmark meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united families who had lost loved ones to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a new law I required as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and receiving no resolution for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

One mother’s child Hannah passed away in May 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“But I could not move on,” she said, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

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

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

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

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

“We are collaborating with police and other parties to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”