🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced abuse at home should be treated as a potential murder case, as per calls from campaigners who seek to make perpetrators responsible for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to hold offenders accountable in cases of self-inflicted death after family violence.

“In case after case, there is widespread breakdown, particularly within the legal system, to examine these fatalities with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group at a significant meeting in London recently.

The assembly, arranged by a group running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, united relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following family violence.

Individual Accounts of Loss

Sharon Holland lost her daughter Chloe Holland in March 2023. Before her death, Chloe had informed her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and imprisoned for over three years. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators to justice; however she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I concluded it wasn’t a fresh legislation I needed as existing laws 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 fulfill their duties, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she added. “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 didn’t have a voice in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she described as “the ultimate abusive action” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a way forward. The man who caused this went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we close the file and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I have not managed to let go. Honestly, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a two year period, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to investigate what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was nothing that they were able to take.

“There was no investigation 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 death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of family violence and failings by various agencies.”

The parent informed the gathering that for a decade she has “struggled against a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide campaign was vital “since when an individual dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to investigate it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must use the legislation we currently have 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 take legal action. We need the judiciary to recognize that words and control can kill just as much as physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, chaired by a opposition politician, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister told the meeting: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their own choice, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the result of actually, another person’s abuse, and these are not rare incidents.”

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It’s not written in statute regardless, it has been shaped with common law practices for generations, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we inhabit today.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and challenging, particularly when you look at the matter of homicide, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have previously charged a number of defendants for leading to the fatality of a companion they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are currently active.

“We are also working with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the complete scope of their crimes.”