Suicides Connected to Domestic Abuse Should Be Probed as Potential Murders, Urge UK Relatives

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had endured domestic violence should be treated as a potential murder case, according to demands from campaigners who seek to hold abusers accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide following family violence.

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization at a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

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

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother lost her daughter her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to police, submitting a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a second woman 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 legal change to bring perpetrators to justice; yet she then discovered that regulations were existing, they just weren’t often being used 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 before her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been battling the police and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s child her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months 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 broken down gradually until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual 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 said, “and I have not managed to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was informed that there was no action that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, required five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of family violence and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that refuses to see what is obvious”.

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

“We need to use the legislation we already possess effectively 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 investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and including the government official, the grieving families again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, 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 fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, especially when you consider the matter of homicide, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are clearly recognized – so that we can hold offenders accountable for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”