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Every suicide where the deceased had endured abuse at home must be treated as a potential homicide, according to calls from campaigners who aim to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

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

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a leader of a campaign group at a landmark gathering in London earlier this week.

The meeting, arranged by a organization running a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the legal framework, united families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, Chloe had reported her former partner to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the parent decided to campaign for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then realized that regulations were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my daughter had been let down previous to her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and only four of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and could not speak out in case it affected investigations 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 called “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was vibrant, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she died by suicide after 24 months in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she was unable to envision a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite substantial proof over a extremely distressing four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The mother informed the gathering that for eight years she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is obvious”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is homicide.

“We need to apply the laws we currently have properly and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for pushing their targets to suicide.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service 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 second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and attended by the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she stated. “Especially around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is outdated, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you consider the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a established background of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a companion they abused, including 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 hold offenders accountable for the complete scope of their crimes.”