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Each self-inflicted death where the victim had endured abuse at home must be treated as a potential murder case, according to calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is necessary because law enforcement are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in instances of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a co-director of a campaign group during a landmark meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The assembly, arranged by a group leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the legal framework, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death after family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

After her death, the individual was found guilty of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. 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.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to hold offenders to justice; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to fulfill their duties, and practices required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the authorities and CPS for years and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was vibrant, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her two children, and she took her own life after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, 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 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, 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 approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide movement was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have properly and it really isn’t happening 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 prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can cause death equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led 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, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, 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, especially when you look at the issue of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our legal officers are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

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