🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced domestic violence should be treated as a potential homicide, according to demands from advocates who seek to make perpetrators accountable for the catastrophic impact of their actions.

This step is necessary because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of suicide following domestic abuse.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to examine these fatalities with the gravity they deserve,” remarked a co-director of a advocacy organization during a significant meeting in Westminster recently.

The assembly, organized by a organization leading a “Self-Inflicted Death is Murder” initiative to fight for reform in the criminal justice system, brought together relatives who had suffered bereavement to suicide following family violence.

Personal Stories of Tragedy

One mother experienced the death of her child her 23-year-old daughter in March 2023. Prior to her passing, Chloe had reported her ex-boyfriend to authorities, providing a lengthy recorded statement as proof against him.

Following her passing, the individual was found guilty of coercive and controlling behavior and jailed for 41 months. He was later jailed for three years and seven months after a second woman came forward to report that she had been in a harmful partnership with him.

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

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I needed as current statutes were in place, and after finding out how much my child had been let down previous to her death by the police and numerous services, they needed to fulfill their duties, and things required reform,” she explained.

“More than four dozen relatives have contacted me and just a handful of us have had a conviction,” she added. “I was astonished to see such a large number who have been fighting the police and CPS for a long time and getting no justice for their offspring or sibling and didn’t have a voice in case it impacted inquiries that were not progressing.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

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

“She was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She had great potential, and she was an amazing, really loving mother to her two children, and she took her own life after two years in a relationship where she was methodically broken down by her companion,” she explained.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and dismantled gradually until she was unable to envision a way forward. The individual who caused this went unpunished, because we label it suicide, we conclude the case and we move on.

“But I could not move on,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, she didn’t just die by suicide. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I went to the police, 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 death. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to struggle to obtain, took five years and had no impact. A four day inquest found self-inflicted death, despite substantial proof over a very traumatic four day period of family violence and shortcomings by multiple services.”

The parent told the meeting that for a decade she has “been fighting a establishment that ignores what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the self-inflicted death is murder campaign was vital “because when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered family violence, we have to examine it for what it truly represents, which is murder.

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

“The statutes exist. We require determination, we need law enforcement to conduct thorough inquiries. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need the judiciary to recognize that verbal abuse and manipulation can cause death just as much as hands and weapons.”

Government Reaction

At a follow-up gathering in the House of Commons, led by a Labour MP, 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 own choice, they chose to do this, when, reality, these were the result of in fact, somebody else’s violence, and these are not rare incidents.”

“The legal system is flawed, we are aware,” she said. “Particularly around murder or manslaughter, it is fragmented. It’s not written in statute anyway, it has been developed with common law practices for centuries, and it is no longer fit for purpose, honestly, given the society we currently live in.

“I will not claim that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is extremely complicated and difficult, particularly when you consider the matter of murder, but we recognize that it requires examination.”

Prosecution Service Statement

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous offense and our prosecutors are actively advised to evaluate homicide allegations in suicide cases where there is a known context of family violence or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a companion they mistreated, encompassing in cases which are currently active.

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