A new law, known as Kiena's Law, is being championed by campaigners, police, and legal experts to hold perpetrators accountable when their abuse drives victims to suicide. The call follows high-profile cases like that of Kiena Dawes, whose abuser was cleared of manslaughter, and comes as figures reveal 150 suspected domestic abuse-related suicides in England and Wales in the latest annual report—up from 98 the previous year and nearly double the 80 intimate partner homicides recorded.
Kiena's Story
Kiena Dawes, 23, took her own life in July 2022 after enduring years of abuse from her partner Ryan Wellings. In her suicide note, she wrote: 'The end. I fought hard, I fought long. I went through pain no-one could imagine. I was murdered. Ryan Wellings killed me. He ruined every bit of strength I had left.' Wellings was convicted of assault and controlling and coercive behaviour but cleared of manslaughter, with the jury finding no 'criminal responsibility' for her death.
Her mother, Angela Dawes, has become a vocal advocate for legal change. 'My girl didn't want to die. My girl wanted to live. But she lived in fear,' she said. 'Girls shouldn't have to die to be heard, and my daughter had to die to be heard. Nothing is ever going to bring my baby back, but if we can change things moving forward, I'd hate to see another family go through what we've been through.'
The Scale of the Problem
According to the Domestic Homicide Project, led by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), 150 suspected domestic abuse-related suicides were recorded in England and Wales in the latest annual report. This figure is a stark increase from 98 in the previous 12 months and significantly exceeds the 80 intimate partner homicides. Despite this, only 3% of such cases result in any prosecution, and there has been just one manslaughter conviction—that of Nicholas Allen, who pleaded guilty and was jailed for 10 years in 2017.
Tim Woodhouse, a suicide prevention researcher at the University of Kent, found that one in three suicides in the county between 2018 and 2024 were impacted by domestic abuse. If applied nationwide, this could mean as many as 1,000 domestic abuse victims taking their own lives each year. 'Being physically abused, sexually attacked and emotionally tortured, week after week, month after month, is clearly exceptionally damaging to anyone's mental health,' he said. 'It's made even worse when the person abusing you is someone you once loved.'
Campaign for Kiena's Law
Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw, in partnership with the charity Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA), hosted a conference in Blackpool last month to launch a petition calling for Kiena's Law. The proposed legislation would create a new standalone offence for domestic abuse-related suicide and include coercive and controlling behaviour within the 'dangerous offender' framework, allowing courts to impose extended sentences.
Grunshaw told Metro: 'If you can imagine the pain, the anguish, the trauma that somebody must be in for them to be in such circumstances that they feel that taking their own life is the only escape from the abuse they're enduring, it is horrendous. We believe that the courts and the judicial system need to have the power in those circumstances to get justice for the victims, and there needs to be a greater deterrent for perpetrators.'
Frank Mullane, founder of AAFDA, said law change is critical. He told Metro that juries are 'struggling' with the link between domestic abuse and suicide and the legal concept of 'causation'. Defence teams are also being left free to 'exploit any mental health difficulties the deceased may have had – even though some or all of those difficulties may have been caused or contributed to, by the abuse'.
Legal Challenges
In simple terms, causation requires proof that a defendant's conduct contributed to a victim's death in a 'significant' way. Several problems arise in domestic abuse-related suicide cases, including the victim being nowhere near the defendant at the time of death and the suicide being seen as a 'choice' freely made. The absence of the victim's voice from the witness box leaves a void that defendants can exploit, pointing to other issues such as mental health problems to explain the suicide.
Dr Anne Lodge, a senior lecturer in law at Teesside University, told Metro: 'Too often, suicide is treated as a completely independent choice of the victim. But where someone has been subjected to years of coercive control, their autonomy may have been so eroded that they no longer see any other way out – they may be effectively stripped of their freedom to make choices. That's something the law needs to recognise.'
In 2022, a coroner ruled that Jessica Laverack, 34, ended her life after suffering domestic abuse—the first inquest to make the link clear. Her mother, Phyllis Daly, told the Blackpool conference that coercive control 'leaves few visible signs, but can destroy a victim's life'. She added: 'Sustained domestic abuse that ends in suicide is not incidental. It's a foreseeable outcome, a preventable outcome, and accountability has to follow.'
Voices from the Conference
The conference heard harrowing testimony from a survivor who spoke publicly for the first time about contemplating suicide. 'When people hear the words domestic abuse, they often imagine bruises, broken bones, black eyes,' she said. 'But abuse is rarely defined by one incident. It took years and a whole new vocabulary – gaslighting, stonewalling, coercive control – before I fully understood what had happened.'
She added: 'People often think suicide is about wanting to die. For me, it wasn't. I didn't want to end my life. I wanted the fear to end. I wanted the intrusive thoughts to end. I wanted to feel safe again. There is a profound difference between wanting a life to end – all the things you love – and desperately wanting unbearable pain to stop.'
Political Support
Local MPs Chris Webb and Lorraine Beavers have pledged to campaign for Kiena's Law in Parliament. Jess Phillips, the former minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls (VAWG), told the conference that 'justice is evading us' currently but insisted the issue is 'a fundamental part' of the government's VAWG strategy. Ministers are 'keen to look at what the solutions are in this space', she added.
A Government spokesperson said: 'We are committed to halving violence against women and girls, and our thoughts remain with all those who have lost loved ones as a result of domestic abuse. We have now introduced better protection for victims by strengthening the management of offenders convicted of controlling and coercive behaviour. The Law Commission is currently reviewing homicide law, including the use of manslaughter offences where abuse may have driven someone to suicide.'
Frank Mullane concluded: 'Kiena's Law represents an opportunity to recognise the devastating and sometimes fatal consequences of coercive and controlling behaviour, improve accountability and help prevent future deaths. We owe it to Kiena and to every family affected by domestic abuse-related suicide to make that change.'
