First teenage suicide linked to domestic abuse recorded in England and Wales

The first teenage girl has been identified as having been driven to kill herself after domestic violence, as police chiefs blamed violent pornography and “toxic” influencers for being behind a rise in teen abuse. Suicides after domestic abuse have outstripped homicides for the third year running, according to the Domestic Homicide Project, which records deaths in England and Wales after domestic abuse. Last year, there were 347 deaths, including 150 from suicide and 125 domestic homicides. Across the five-year dataset, victims were predominantly female (73%), and suspects predominantly male (79%). Over the five years, the project recorded 1,452 deaths in 1,410 incidents – 641 of these were domestic homicides, 553 were suicide after domestic abuse, 131 unexpected deaths, 86 child deaths and 41 deaths classified as “other”. Of the suicide cases, 88% involved a history of domestic abuse perpetration known to the police prior to the victim’s death. There were 85 more deaths last year than previously, but this has been attributed to wider knowledge among police forces about domestic violence before homicide and suicide. “There is a small but encouraging increase in charges for suicide after domestic violence,” said the assistant police commissioner in the Metropolitan police Louisa Rolfe. …