Suicides Linked to Family Violence Should Be Probed as Potential Homicides, Urge UK Relatives

Each self-inflicted death where the deceased had endured abuse at home should be considered a possible homicide, as per demands from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their behavior.

This move is essential because law enforcement are not doing enough to bring perpetrators accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they warrant,” stated a co-director of a campaign group at a landmark meeting in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a group leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had suffered bereavement to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother lost her daughter Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later sentenced for an additional term after a another victim came forward to report that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to hold offenders accountable; yet she then discovered that laws were existing, they just were rarely applied to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a new law I required as existing laws were already there, and after learning how much my child had been let down before her taking her life by the authorities and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was so shocked 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 brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she said. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mother to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She endured physical assaults, she was mentally tormented, she was controlled 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 suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to move on. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a two year period, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to investigate what he had done to her, I was told that there was nothing that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A lengthy coroner’s hearing found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”

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

She said the self-inflicted death is murder movement was critical “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We need to use the legislation we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the present, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill equally to hands and weapons.”

Political Response

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the grieving families again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is outdated, honestly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we acknowledge that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for causing the death of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

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