Suicides Linked to Family Violence Should Be Investigated as Possible Homicides, Demand UK Families

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced abuse at home must be considered a possible homicide, according to calls from advocates who aim to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their behavior.

This move is necessary because law enforcement are not doing enough to hold offenders accountable in instances of suicide following family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these fatalities with the seriousness they warrant,” stated a co-director of a advocacy organization at a landmark gathering in London recently.

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

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

Sharon Holland experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in March 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her former partner to police, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as evidence against him.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for an additional term after a another victim came forward to disclose that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

After Chloe’s death, the mother chose to advocate for a legal change to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just were rarely applied to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the police and many other agencies, they had to do their job properly, and practices 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 so shocked to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and could not speak out in case it impacted inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“Hannah was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an exceptional, really loving mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The individual who did this to her went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, she did not merely take her own life. She was killed. 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 done to her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest determined self-inflicted death, despite huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a system that refuses to see what is obvious”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was critical “since when someone dies by suicide after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we currently have properly and it is not occurring at the moment, and we need to make perpetrators responsible for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A parliamentary under-secretary told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often written off as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these are not isolated stories.”

“The legal system is flawed, we know that,” she stated. “Particularly around homicide or unlawful killing, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been shaped with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is incredibly complex and difficult, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we acknowledge that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the legal body commented: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have previously charged a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are collaborating with law enforcement and other parties to guarantee these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”