🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had endured domestic violence should be considered a potential murder case, according to calls from advocates who aim to hold abusers responsible for the devastating impact of their actions.

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

“Time and again, there is widespread breakdown, especially within the legal system, to scrutinise these deaths with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a leader of a advocacy organization at a significant gathering in London recently.

The assembly, arranged by a organization running a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” campaign to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had lost loved ones to self-inflicted death following domestic abuse.

Individual Accounts of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had informed her former partner to authorities, submitting a lengthy recorded statement as proof about his conduct.

After her death, the perpetrator was convicted of coercive and controlling behavior and imprisoned for 41 months. He was subsequently jailed for three years and seven months after a another victim stepped up 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 legal change to hold offenders to justice; however she then discovered that laws were already in place, they just weren’t often being used to achieve convictions.

“I decided it wasn’t a new law I required as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed before her taking her life by the police and numerous services, they needed to do their job properly, and practices needed to change,” she said.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted 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 battling the authorities and CPS for years and receiving no resolution for their child or brother or sister and could not speak out in case it affected investigations that were not progressing.”

Another Tragic Case

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

“She was vibrant, she was loving,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, deeply devoted mum 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 said.

“She was physically beaten, she was mentally tormented, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who did this to her walked free, because we call it self-inflicted death, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she said, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. Her death was gradual and intentionally over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, when I pleaded with them to look into what he had inflicted upon her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, notwithstanding substantial proof over a extremely distressing multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

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

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder movement was vital “because when someone dies by suicide after they’ve endured family violence, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is murder.

“We need to 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.

“The statutes exist. We need the will, we need police to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to understand that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death equally to hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the Parliament, led by a Labour MP, and attended by the government official, the bereaved relatives again told their stories.

A junior minister informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the result of in fact, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around homicide or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It lacks statutory basis anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, quite frankly, it’s the world we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be simple to fix. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you look at the issue of murder, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A spokesperson for the prosecution service commented: “Domestic abuse is a terrible crime and our legal officers are actively advised to consider homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a established background of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behavior.

“We have in the past prosecuted a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they abused, encompassing in proceedings which are ongoing.

“We are collaborating with police and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can hold offenders to justice for the full extent of their wrongdoings.”