Parliament will debate whether all suicides involving victims of domestic abuse should be investigated as homicides.
The Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill saying that if “there is reasonable suspicion that a death by suicide has been preceded by a history of domestic abuse committed against the person by another person, the relevant police force must investigate that suicide as if it were a potential homicide.”
Given the size of Labour’s majority, any amendment is unlikely to succeed unless it is supported by the government or MPs are allowed to vote freely.
Marie Goldman MP, Liberal Democrat women and equalities spokesperson, said: “Current systems and laws are simply not doing enough to protect women and, in too many cases, suicides caused by domestic abuse go unreported.
“We urgently need to update the law, so that police forces investigate every suicide as a potential homicide when there is a history of domestic abuse.”
He added: “Only by making this mandatory will the police be able to collect and preserve the best possible evidence to bring justice to the victims and their loved ones.
“I would call on colleagues across the political divide to support the Liberal Democrats’ amendment to ensure that the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes can never escape the full force of the law.”
Anti-domestic violence activists have welcomed the amendment. Pragna Patel, of Project Resist, said: “We have been campaigning for a presumption to investigate domestic abuse-related suicides as potential homicides and are calling for changes to police and CPS procedural policy to include such a presumption.”
Her organization launched a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign last year to challenge how the criminal justice system handles suicides related to domestic abuse.
Frank Mullane, CEO of Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA), said: “We have been calling for this for many years. When there is a suicide following domestic abuse or suspected domestic abuse, police must bring the same level of seniority, experience and organization to the investigation as they would for a homicide.
“They should rule the death as a homicide until they can prove otherwise. There may be multiple crime scenes to protect.”
Mullane said doing so would “further protect police against behavior that has led to the loss or destruction of evidence, for example where police have returned victims’ phones and laptops to people who should have been treated as suspects.”
Ellie Daniel, head of policy and survivor services at Women’s Aid, said the charity also welcomed the proposed amendment.
“Too many women who have been subjected to devastating abuse, including coercive and controlling behavior, by their current or former partner have been denied justice after suicide, because their death was not considered to be directly at the hands of their perpetrator,” Daniel said.
“We owe more to these women and their grieving families,” he added. “More understanding of the insidious nature of domestic abuse, more united responses to believe and support women and children; and more justice for those victims whose lives are so tragically taken.”
