🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death where the victim had experienced abuse at home must be considered a potential murder case, as per calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This move is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a significant meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for change in the legal framework, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother decided to campaign for a legal change to hold offenders accountable; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things needed to change,” she explained.

“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter Hannah died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was nothing that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted 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 huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a system that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since when an individual takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation 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 require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need judges to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by 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 own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, 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, especially when you look at the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our legal officers are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active.

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