Standing Together supports AAFDA’s call for stronger accountability in cases of domestic abuse-related suicides and unexplained deaths

Last week, at AAFDA’s national conference, we heard powerful testimony from families whose loved ones died by suicide or in unexplained circumstances linked to domestic abuse. Their trauma is compounded by the lack of accountability in our justice system.

We stand with AAFDA in calling for:

• A new law to recognise the causal link between domestic abuse and suicide, enabling juries to hold perpetrators to account, with sentencing akin to manslaughter.

• Coercive control to be brought within the scope of Extended Determinate Sentences.

“We must recognise that domestic abuse has life-threatening and life-ending consequences. Victims and their families deserve justice.  Perpetrators must be held accountable for the full harm they cause. We support AAFDA’s call for a new law to ensure families are no longer left without answers or justice.”
— Cherryl Henry-Leach, CEO, Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse

At Standing Together, we believe perpetrators must be held fully accountable for the harm they cause — for the abuse they perpetrate and its devastating consequences. A coordinated community response must include the justice system recognising, recording and responding to these deaths.

Every life lost to domestic abuse is one too many. Families deserve justice, and survivors deserve systems that do not minimise the impact of abuse.

Read AAFDA’s resource here: https://aafda.org.uk/news/accountability-after-domestic-abuse-related-suicides-and-unexplained-deaths