Perpetrators of domestic abuse must be held to account when victims take their own lives
On Thursday 25th September, the charity AAFDA – Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse – brought together over 100 bereaved family members at their ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ conference in Swindon. The families, many of whom had been bereaved after their family member died from suicide following domestic abuse, were joined at the conference by the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips MP, who delivered the keynote speech.
The conference also heard from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Nicole Jacobs, and the Assistant Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, Louisa Rolfe OBE.
Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips said:
“Every death linked to domestic abuse is a devastating tragedy. We must do more to understand and prevent them, and ensure perpetrators are held to account.
As part of our mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, we are reforming Domestic Homicide Reviews and creating a new oversight board with publicly appointed members to speed up the review process.
But more needs to be done. Our upcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy will set out concrete actions to strengthen our response to all domestic abuse-related deaths.”
Chief Executive of AAFDA, Frank Mullane MBE, said:
“This conference has been an important moment for families bereaved by domestic abuse, where the victim has taken their own life because of the abuse. It is vital we get justice for these families.
We believe that manslaughter convictions following the suicide of a person who was domestically abused will be very rare, going on experiences to date. It means that some perpetrators may escape full justice. Instead, they may only be convicted of other offences attracting much lesser sentences and which do not recognise the full extent of the harm done. This means some dangerous offenders will be more quickly back on the streets able to cause more harm.
This is why we are asking for changes to the law following this conference, and have released a paper outlining the reasons why. We ask those attending today and for the general public to support as we work to get justice for the families who have faced the trauma of losing a loved one because of the actions of an abuser.”
Sayeed Hafejee, who lost his daughter Zarah to suicide in 2022, said:
“As a family we would like to thank AAFDA for their compassion, empathy and support navigating the challenges faced by families who have to not only deal with the bereavement of their child but also faced with having to navigate the challenges of having to deal with the Police and the Coroner’s office. Both organisations clearly are failing families, with systems and processes that are unable to address the issues faced by the families of the bereaved leaving them more questions than answers. The AAFDA will continue to raise awareness of the issues that families face in seeking justice for their loved ones.”
AAFDA is asking for:
- A new law crafted to assist juries to recognise the causative relationship between domestic abuse and suicide and which would attract a similar sentence to the offence of manslaughter.
- Coercive control to be brought under the remit of Extended Determinate Sentences.