The number of women in the UK who take their own lives after domestic abuse may be far higher than official figures indicate, with one regional study suggesting national statistics could be capturing as little as 6.5% of cases, according to an exclusive Guardian investigation.

Data collected through a National Police Chiefs’ Council-led programme recorded 98 suspected suicides following domestic abuse in 2024, compared with 80 intimate partner homicides in the same year, a comparison campaigners say underlines how coercive control and violence can be lethal even when it does not end in murder.

Researchers and lawyers told the Guardian that the true scale of abuse-linked suicides is likely to be significantly larger, with police and prosecutors accused of overlooking evidence of domestic abuse after a death and, in some cases, discontinuing inquiries once the victim has died.

A suicide prevention programme in Kent found that about a third of all suspected suicides in the county between 2018 and 2024 were affected by domestic abuse. If the Kent proportion were reflected nationally, it would equate to as many as 1,500 deaths a year linked to domestic abuse — up to 15 times higher than the police-recorded figure for suspected domestic abuse-related suicides in 2024.

Tim Woodhouse, the programme manager and a University of Kent academic who led the research, said a national response was needed to establish the true scale of the problem and improve how cases are handled. “We need some sort of national taskforce to get a grip on this,” he told the Guardian. He said it was “bonkers that we are basing national estimates on one researcher’s evidence”, describing the issue as “in terms of numbers, a national scandal”.

Woodhouse said the NPCC’s data collection was a “good start” but argued that the system was failing to identify many of the relevant cases because of what he described as narrow criteria. “They’re not counting very many of the right suicides, they’ve got very tight exclusion criteria so they’re massively underplaying the number,” he said.

Campaigners and lawyers have also renewed calls for deaths where domestic abuse is suspected to be investigated from the outset as potential homicides, arguing that early investigative decisions can determine whether crucial evidence is secured, including digital material, witness accounts and histories of coercive control.

The Guardian investigation also highlights how rarely abuse-linked suicides lead to criminal charges, despite evidence sometimes emerging later at inquests. There has been only one manslaughter conviction in UK legal history where a woman died by suicide following domestic abuse, lawyers told the paper, a figure campaigners say points to systemic failures in how the criminal justice system responds.

Pragna Patel of Project Resist, which has supported bereaved families and is campaigning for reform, said: “Too many bereaved families who have lost loved ones to domestic abuse-related suicides are being failed by a criminal justice system that is not fit for purpose.” She said the problem went beyond training or gaps in the law, alleging “a systemic culture of discrimination, arrogance, indifference and apathy”.

The Guardian is publishing a series of articles about people — most of them women — who died by suicide after domestic abuse, in an effort to show the scale and patterns of what campaigners call “domestic abuse suicides”.

Among the cases cited is that of Georgia Barter, whose death followed what an inquest heard was a decade-long campaign of abuse by her former partner, Thomas Bignell. Evidence heard by a coroner included allegations that Barter was kicked, stamped on and sexually assaulted. The coroner concluded the death was an unlawful killing, but the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to charge Bignell in relation to the alleged abuse.

Barter’s mother, Kay, told the Guardian the length of time without justice had been devastating. “It’s been almost six long heartbreaking years since I lost my beautiful daughter Georgia. Still the fight for justice goes on,” she said. “I would like to ask this government ‘when did this country stop respecting or protecting women and girls?’ Now is the time to show them you care.”

In another case revealed by the newspaper, the inquest into the death of Katie Madden heard that her former partner, Jonathon Russell, admitted giving her a black eye and, hours before she died, telling her to kill herself. The Guardian reported that no criminal investigation into Russell’s role in Madden’s death has been launched and that police dropped a domestic violence inquiry after her death.

The apparent gap between what is heard in coroners’ courts and what results in criminal proceedings has become a central issue for families and legal advocates. Campaigners say that where domestic abuse is suspected, treating a death purely as suicide from the outset can mean opportunities are missed to build a case around coercive control, threats, stalking or violence, or to consider whether a death could amount to an unlawful killing.

Kate Ellis, joint head of litigation at the Centre for Women’s Justice, said police too often failed to intervene effectively when abuse escalated. “Sadly, police forces too often miss opportunities to disrupt escalating domestic abuse and protect victims,” she said. “Too often we see police forces failing to take any criminal action against perpetrators, or consider protective measures that could be put in place, even when domestic abuse cases are graded as high risk. These errors can have fatal consequences.”

Ellis said some abuse-related suicides could be preventable where authorities were already aware of the risk. “We believe that some domestic abuse-related suicides are preventable, particularly in cases where the police are on notice of the abuse,” she said, adding that coercive and controlling relationships often follow recognisable patterns. She also said the organisation was concerned that “many suicides in apparent domestic abuse contexts are not recognised or investigated by the police as potential homicides, even when there is significant evidence of prior domestic abuse”.

Southall Black Sisters, which has campaigned for decades for abuse-related suicide to be recognised as homicide, has supported an amendment to the crime and policing bill, backed by more than 50 MPs, aimed at changing how such deaths are treated. The organisation has also raised concerns about the potential overrepresentation of abuse-driven suicides, including “honour”-based abuse, among Black, minority and migrant women.

“Women in these communities have additional barriers to overcome in order to escape abuse caused by intersecting racism and misogyny,” said Hannana Siddiqui, the director of policy, campaigns and research at Southall Black Sisters.

Although campaigners say the system remains stacked against families seeking accountability, the NPCC and CPS have in recent years signalled a greater willingness to consider charges in cases where domestic abuse is alleged to have contributed to a death. The Guardian reported that two men are currently being prosecuted for manslaughter following suicides after domestic abuse, and that both organisations have said they are keen to bring more cases to court.

The difficulty, lawyers say, is that prosecutions must prove causation to the criminal standard, and defence teams may point to any history of mental ill health or other stressors as an alternative explanation for suicide.

The most recent high-profile case to test the threshold was that of Ryan Wellings, who was cleared by a jury in March last year of manslaughter in the death of Kiena Dawes. Dawes took her own life and left a note on her phone saying: “Slowly … Ryan Wellings killed me.” Wellings was convicted of assault and coercive and controlling behaviour and jailed for six and a half years.

The only manslaughter conviction cited in the Guardian’s reporting dates back to 2017, when Nicholas Allen pleaded guilty after his former partner, Justene Reece, took her own life. Allen had stalked her after she left him and moved to a women’s refuge.

Frank Mullane of Advocacy after Fatal Domestic Abuse said the legal framework may make it too hard to hold perpetrators to account, even when families believe domestic abuse was central to the death. “It might not be enough to rely on the police improving their investigations and the CPS optimising its prosecution, to ensure perpetrators face justice after domestic abuse related suicides,” he said. Mullane called for a specific offence covering suicide caused by domestic abuse, arguing it would make it easier for juries to identify causation and give prosecutors confidence to bring cases.

The Guardian’s findings are expected to intensify pressure on ministers, police leaders and prosecutors to review how deaths are recorded and investigated, and how domestic abuse intelligence is shared across agencies. Woodhouse said national estimates should not depend on isolated research and called for a coordinated approach to data and prevention.

If you have been affected by the issues in this report, you can contact Samaritans free on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland or email jo@samaritans.org. Support is also available via the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.