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

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced domestic violence must be treated as a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating impact of their actions.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of suicide after family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

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

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up 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 legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however 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 new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her death by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for years and receiving no resolution for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she said. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving mother to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we call it self-inflicted death, we close the file and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. Her death was gradual and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and failings by multiple services.”

The parent informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in proceedings 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 full extent of their crimes.”