UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – British families call for abuse-related suicides to be treated as homicide, citing systemic failings by UK police and CPS.
As reported by The Guardian, campaigners call for suicides linked to domestic abuse to be investigated as homicides to ensure abusers face justice. They argue the step is needed as police and prosecutors are failing to hold abusers accountable in domestic abuse cases.
What did Project Resist say about failures in investigating abuse-related suicides?
Earlier this week, during a meeting in Westminster, Pragna Patel, co-director of the campaign group Project Resist, stated,
“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, especially within the criminal justice system, to scrutinise these deaths with the seriousness that they deserve.”
The campaign group Project Resist held a meeting with families who lost loved ones to domestic abuse-related suicides, advocating for justice reforms through the “Suicide is Homicide” campaign.
What did families say about justice for abuse-linked suicides?
Sharon Holland’s 23-year-old daughter, Chloe, died in March 2023 after reporting her former partner, Marc Masterton, to police with a two-hour video statement.
After her passing, Marc Masterton was convicted of coercive and controlling behaviour and sentenced to 41 months in prison. He was jailed for three years and seven months following a second woman’s report of abuse and coercive behaviour.
Following Chloe’s death, Holland campaigned for new laws, only to realise existing legislation wasn’t being effectively used to prosecute abusers.
She stated,
“I decided it wasn’t a new law I needed as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my daughter had been failed previous to her taking her life by the police and many other agencies, they needed to do their job properly, and things needed to change.”
She added,
“Over 47 families have found me and only four of us have had a conviction. I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the police and CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] for years and getting no justice for their child or sibling and didn’t have a voice and couldn’t speak out in case it affected investigations that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”
Saskia Lightburn Richie’s daughter, Hannah, died in May 2017, described by her mother as the “final act of violence” in a prolonged abuse campaign.
She stated,
“[Hannah] was vibrant, she was loving. She was full of promise, and she was an amazing, really loving mum to her two children, and she died by suicide after two years in a relationship where she was systematically destroyed by her partner.”
Lightburn Richie said,
“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was controlled and broken down piece by piece until she could not see a way forward. The man who did this to her walked free, because we call it suicide, we close the file and we move on.”
She added,
“But I could not move on, and I haven’t been able to move on. In truth, Hannah didn’t just die by suicide. She was killed. She was killed slowly and deliberately over two years, 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.”
Lightburn Richie said,
“There was no investigation into her death. The domestic homicide review, which I had to fight for, took five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest found death by suicide, despite huge evidence over a very traumatic four day period of domestic abuse and failings by multiple services.”
She described her eight-year fight against a system blind to the evidence before her, saying the campaign is crucial, as suicides after abuse should be investigated as homicides.
Lightburn Richie added,
“We have the laws. We need the will, we need police to investigate properly. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute. We need judges to understand that words and control can kill just as much as hands and weapons.”
What did Alex Davies-Jones say about suicides after abuse?
Alex Davies-Jones, parliamentary under-secretary of state for victims, said,
“These deaths are often written off as if they were their decision, they chose to do this, when, in truth, these were the culmination of actually, somebody else’s violence, and these aren’t isolated stories.”
She stated,
“Our law is broken, we know that. Particularly around homicide, around murder or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. 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, quite frankly, it’s the world that we currently live in.”
Ms Davies added,
“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to fix. It is incredibly complex and difficult, especially when you look at the issue of homicide, but we recognise that it needs to be looked at.”
What did Jess Phillips say about preventing domestic abuse deaths?
Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said,
“Every death linked to domestic abuse is a tragedy. We must do more to prevent them, and I will be meeting Project Resist to discuss how we can hold perpetrators to account more effectively.”
She stated,
“We are funding the Domestic Homicide Project to capture information on domestic abuse related deaths, including suicides, from all 43 police forces in England and Wales to improve our understanding of this issue.”
Ms Phillips added,
“But more needs to be done. Our upcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy will set out our plans to strengthen our response to all domestic abuse related deaths.”
What did Ofcom say about the online suicide forum restrictions?
The Online Safety Act, effective October 2023, allows the communication regulator Ofcom, since March 2025, to target illegal content, including material aiding suicide.
In a statement, Ofcom stated,
“In response to our enforcement action, the online suicide forum put in place a geo-block to restrict access by people with UK IP addresses. Services that choose to block access by people in the UK must not encourage or promote ways to avoid these restrictions.”
What did the CPS say about suicides linked to domestic abuse?
A CPS spokesperson stated,
“Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are actively advised to consider murder and manslaughter charges in suicide cases where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other controlling or coercive behaviour.”
They added,
“We have previously charged a number of defendants for causing the death of a partner they abused, including in proceedings which are currently active. We are also working with police and other stakeholders to ensure these kinds of offences are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the full extent of their crimes.”
Which factors are driving the rise in suicide rates?
Researchers and psychologists have highlighted several key factors contributing to rising suicide rates.
In England and Wales, suicide rates climbed to their highest levels in 25 years in 2023, with sharp regional disparities such as significantly higher rates in the North-West linked to socioeconomic deprivation, unemployment, and weaker access to mental health services.
Other factors include social isolation, financial problems, and mental health disorders, including alcohol and drug misuse are common among those who die by suicide.
Key facts about the UK’s Online Safety Act
The Act places legal duties on social media companies, search engines, and other services that allow users to post content or interact.
The law requires strict age checks and shields children from content promoting suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders.
Ofcom enforces the Act and has significant powers. Companies that fail to comply face substantial fines, up to £18 million or 10% of their global annual revenue.
