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Every suicide where the deceased had endured domestic violence must be considered a possible murder case, according to demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the devastating consequences of their behavior.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are failing to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide after family violence.

“Time and again, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a landmark meeting in Westminster recently.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to suicide after family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Prior to her passing, the young woman had informed her ex-boyfriend to police, providing a two-hour video interview as proof against him.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

In the wake of her loss, the mother decided to campaign for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; however she then discovered that regulations were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I decided it was not a new law I needed as current statutes were in place, and after learning how much my child had been failed before her taking her life by the authorities and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and things required reform,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have found me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she continued. “I was astonished to see so many families who have been fighting the police 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 impacted investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Another Tragic Case

Saskia Lightburn Richie’s child her 30-year-old daughter died in spring 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a campaign of abuse.

“She was energetic, she was loving,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her companion,” she said.

“She endured physical assaults, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and dismantled piece by piece until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this 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, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I begged them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“No inquiry was conducted into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and failings by various agencies.”

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

She said the suicide is homicide movement was vital “because when an individual takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to investigate it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

“We must use the legislation we currently have effectively and it is not occurring at the moment, 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 prosecute. We need judges to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

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

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

“Our law is broken, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or unlawful killing, 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’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be simple to resolve. It is extremely complicated and difficult, especially when you look at the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the legal body said: “Family violence is a terrible crime and our legal officers 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 partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other stakeholders to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”