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Every suicide in which the victim had experienced domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic consequences of their actions.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders to justice in instances of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization during a landmark gathering in London recently.

The assembly, organized by a group running a “Suicide is Homicide” initiative to fight for reform in the legal framework, united relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for over three years. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used 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 failed before her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and practices required reform,” 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 so many families who have been fighting the authorities and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her 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 have not managed to let go. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and intentionally 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.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse 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 right in front of it”.

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we currently have properly and it is not occurring 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 investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Political Response

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

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

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with traditional legal customs for generations, 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 resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you look at the matter of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

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

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are clearly recognized – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”