THE number of domestic abuse victims taking their own lives has risen for the third year in a row, police figures revealed today.

Domestic abuse-related deaths classed as suspected suicide were more common than killings by a current or ex-partner in the year to the end of March 2023.

The report, part of a project led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, recorded 242 domestic abuse-related deaths in England and Wales that year, including 93 cases where victims were thought to have taken their own life.

Eighty cases were killings by intimate partners, 31 by an adult family member and there were 11 child deaths. The remainder were classed as unexpected, or other.

For the year to the end of March 2022, there were 72 cases where the victim took their own life out of a total of 259 domestic-abuse-related deaths, while in the previous year, it was 51 out of a total of 222.

The report said the increase was likely to be due to better record-keeping by police, but that an actual rise could not be ruled out.

Lead academic researchers on the report, Dr Katie Hoeger and Dr Lis Bates, said: “Our report lays bare the scale of deaths following domestic abuse, with at least one victim suicide every four days and murder by a partner or family member every three days.

“This demands urgent collective action and not only from police — these victims and perpetrators are known to many other agencies.

Amy Bowdrey, policy and public affairs officer at Refuge said: “It is essential that the police, and other services, understand the dynamics of domestic abuse, including coercive control and recognise the life-threatening risk abusive behaviours pose to those experiencing it.

“It is devastating to see that three out of five suspects in domestic homicide cases were known to the police for domestic abuse, and that proper action from the police and other agencies could have prevented these premature deaths.

“Reports like this, from the Domestic Homicide project, are important for educating both professionals, and the public, on the sobering realities of domestic abuse. Women must be seen and must be believed. We need immediate and effective police intervention in domestic abuse cases, so that no more women’s lives are tragically cut short.”

The report is the third of its kind published as part of the national domestic homicide project, a Home Office-funded research project.

In all three years, figures showed that four out of five suspects were previously known to police and three out of five for domestic abuse.