Suicides Linked to Domestic Abuse Should Be Probed as Possible Murders, Demand British Families

Every suicide where the victim had experienced abuse at home should be considered a possible homicide, as per calls from advocates who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the legal framework, brought together families who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as current statutes were already there, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been battling the authorities 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 affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship 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 could not see a way forward. The individual who caused this walked free, because we label it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally 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 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, required five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing determined death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “because when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine 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 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 conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

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, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”