Wednesday briefing: Why suicides linked to abuse are going unpunished
Good morning. Last year, research found that in the UK suicides following domestic abuse outnumbered homicides by partners for the second year in a row. These deaths reverberate. They leave a mark on the responding officers first called to the scene, the grieving families and the community that rally around afterwards. They also have potential ramifications. If victims are being pushed to suicide as a result of domestic abuse, alleged perpetrators could go on causing harm if not held accountable. Yet something seems to be going wrong in how we account for these deaths. There is evidence they are chronically under-reported. In cases where there is a strong history of domestic violence, charges have been quickly dropped after an alleged victim takes their own life. And manslaughter charges where a suicide is involved are incredibly rare. So what’s going wrong? How does a system tasked with looking after women seem to be failing them so badly that experts are calling it a “national scandal?” And would a law change help? I spoke to our North of England correspondent, Hannah Al-Othman, about her joint investigation into domestic abuse suicides. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories Flooding | One in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas that could now be at risk of flooding, according to new data. Crime | Child sexual abuse in the UK is soaring, police have said, with 1,000 paedophile suspects being arrested each month and the number of children being rescued from harm rising by 50% in the last five years. Jeffrey Epstein | British police have expanded their interest in the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s links to Britain, by admitting for the first time they are looking at claims he used dozens of private flights into UK airports to traffic women. Reform | Nigel Farage has unveiled the first part of Reform UK’s frontbench team, saying it shows that the party is no longer reliant entirely on him – while also warning that he will not tolerate any dissent from his colleagues. Gaza | Medics in the UK and US believe they have been denied re-entry to Gaza after speaking out on the ongoing conflict. In depth: ‘There’s often a failure to recognise the deep, deep impact domestic abuse has’
Georgia Barter (pictured above) and her mother were very close. Georgia would call her mother, Kay, three or four times a day just to see how she was. After every phone call, she remembers her daughter would end the call with the same “I love you, Mum.” When Georgia began a relationship with Thomas Bignell, Kay Barter noticed how quickly their relationship became “intense”. A decade or so later, after years of a tumultuous relationship with Bignell, Georgia, took her own life at 32. “There were many, many times throughout the relationship where I noticed he had marked Georgia,” Barter told a court last September during an inquest looking into Georgia’s death. Once, she says, her daughter “looked like a victim of a road traffic accident”. Guardian reporter Hannah Al-Othman was there, listening at the side of the courtroom as Kay Barter gave evidence. Hannah had been told to attend by a source who knew Georgia’s case would make waves nationally. They were right. Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe came back with an unlawful killing ruling in the case – the first time ever in an inquest with a coroner sitting alone. Although Hannah has reported on many inquests, she remembers feeling shocked at the weight of the evidence regarding Bignell’s alleged abuse. It included GP reports, physical injuries, personal testimony, and hospitalisation. But Bignell was never charged with any violent offences against Georgia. Nor did he face charges relating to her death. In other cases, such as that of Katie Madden, her partner admitted to an inquest court that he’d told Katie to “go kill yourself” in the hours leading up to her death. He also told the inquest he then “went back on” himself and told her not to. In the end, he also faced no charges. Two weeks after Katie died, domestic abuse charges against her partner were dropped. *** Problems from the outset An inquest has a different burden of proof than a criminal court, looking “on the balance of probabilities” rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt”. So while coroners have made two unlawful killing rulings in relation to a suicide, these have no real bearing on the criminal justice system. But Hannah believes the issues with these cases start even before they get to court. “It’s often about police officers turning up and saying, ‘this is a suicide’ and not even starting to treat it as a crime scene so later down the line, even when they know or have been called out before to a domestic abuse incident … they’re not sealing it as a crime scene or collecting any evidence,” she says. Once a suicide has been noted as the cause of death, other issues can come later down the line. Coroners, for example, decide in advance what evidence they want to hear during an inquest. “In some cases, coroners are saying ‘this looks like a suicide so we’re only going to hear about the weeks before, not the months or years of [alleged] domestic abuse’.” The dropping of domestic abuse charges following a suicide is also perplexing, as a suicide does not mean the abuse didn’t happen – on the contrary, it could be further evidence. In Georgia’s case, it seems multiple agencies failed to pass on information about suspected abuse at the hands of Bignell while she was alive. Georgia’s family wanted this to be reconsidered after the unlawful death ruling, but ultimately, the Crown Prosecution Service declined due to insufficient evidence. Katie Madden’s partner, Jonathan Russell, was already being investigated on suspicion of assault when she died. He was also forbidden from contacting her. And yet, even amid evidence that he had called and texted telling Katie to kill herself in the hours before her death, two weeks after she died, a letter arrived saying the assault case against Russell was being dropped. *** Cuts to services There are now more cases where someone commits suicide after having experienced domestic abuse than there are cases where they are killed by their partners. The Domestic Homicide Project found that between April 2023 to March 2024, 98 people were suspected to have killed themselves after experiencing domestic abuse, while 80 people were killed by a partner during the same period. The problem runs so deep that some experts believe we aren’t properly accounting for it. One suicide prevention programme in Kent found that about a third of all suspected suicides in the area between 2018 and 2024 were affected by domestic abuse. If that finding is reflective of the national picture, it could mean as many as 1,500 victims of domestic abuse taking their own lives every year – up to 15 times as many as previously thought. “There’s often a failure to recognise the deep, deep impact that domestic abuse has, and the challenges it can present across someone’s whole life,” says Hannah. She points to the many cases where a person who has experienced abuse develops mental health or addiction problems. “Then their problems are blamed on them, and they feel judged.” I ask her whether she thinks the sheer volume of cases – in a context where 20% of all crime in most police forces now relates to domestic abuse – alongside a backdrop of austerity is to blame. Charities have been raising the alarm for more than a decade that women and girls would bear the brunt of cuts to vital services. And with so many services involved in these cases from GPs, to hospitals, to police forces, it is hard to feel frontline cuts wouldn’t make a difference. “It’s partly driven by austerity,” says Hannah. “If people have nowhere to go, they stay in the household longer and they are more likely to be a victim of more serious abuse … these things mean there are more opportunities for perpetrators to offend.” *** Change in law? Some campaigners believe a new law is needed to better account for a suicide that was urged on by domestic abuse. “They point at cases where prosecutors have tried to get a conviction and have failed,” says Hannah, adding that there is a lack of public awareness of how to convict such cases. “A jury is made up of the general public, and in the same way that police and coroners may not understand it, the same goes for a jury. [Campaigners] think giving a specific offence may make it easier to secure a conviction,” explains Hannah. But it also seems the legislation may already exist to convict these crimes, with a handful of cases where an allegedly abusive partner was taken to court for manslaughter following a suicide. In 2024, Ryan Wellings was charged with the manslaughter of Kiena Dawes, who took her own life, leaving a note on her phone saying: “Slowly … Ryan Wellings killed me.” He was not convicted of manslaughter, but was convicted of assault and coercive and controlling behaviour, and jailed for six and a half years. “Lots of lawyers say this legislation already exists. What we need is a shift in professional curiosity and public attitude,” she says. They recommend, among other things, that in any suicide where there is a history of domestic abuse, it should be treated as homicide from outset. “So if the police turn up and it looks like a suicide but they know they have attended that address previously due to domestic abuse, they gather evidence in a way they would if they suspected it was a murder,” says Hannah. • In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org What else we’ve been reading
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Winter Olympics | Who knew the ice could get so hot? The Olympic curling community is still all in a twist about everything that’s gone on in the sport since a row broke out between the Sweden and Canada sides on Friday. Rugby union | Henry Pollock has been handed his first England start against Ireland while Steve Borthwick has recalled Tom Curry and Ollie Lawrence as he seeks to get his side’s Six Nations campaign back on track. Cricket | Australia have been knocked out of the T20 World Cup after Zimbabwe’s match against Ireland was washed out. With each side taking a point from the rained-off match it means Australia can no longer catch Zimbabwe, even if they win their final match against Oman on Friday The front pages
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Why did Labour Together orchestrate a smear campaign against journalists? A thinktank called Labour Together, linked to Keir Starmer and Morgan McSweeney, has been exposed for investigating journalists who were looking into the group’s funding. One of those journalists was the Guardian’s Henry Dyer. He tells Helen Pidd how he found out and why it matters. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron
The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
When James Balmont joined the band Swim Deep 13 years ago, he never dreamed they would find a fanbase in China. But there is a growing interest in the country for grassroots UK indie bands. “In September 2019, our biggest UK festival show took place […] in front of a crowd of 500,” says Balmont. “A few months later, we played to 10,000 people […] in Guangzhou.” It is a trend that has proved a financial lifeline for many musicians as returns dry up back home. For Craig Dyer, frontman of The Underground Youth, touring in the UK is no longer financially viable, with accommodation and food often costing more than gig fees. But in China, tours are often all-inclusive offers, with promoters booking large venues and covering internal travel, hotels and hot meals on top of the performance payment. “We’re no longer desperately trying to break or grow,” adds Jan Scott Wilkinson, frontman of Sea Power, who played six headline shows in China last year. “It’s a nice surprise to do something like this and be treated like kings.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
