Fears domestic abuse deaths and murders mistaken as suicides

DEATHS - and sometimes murders — of women suffering domestic abuse may have been wrongly labelled suicide, police fear.

- By Paul Jeeves

The concern comes as a report today shows 1,000 abuse victims have died in just four years in what the chief officer tasked with ending the escalating problem called an "incomprehensible" tragedy.

The number killing themselves has more than doubled in the past three years.

The study urges a better multi-agency response that spans the wider criminal justice system, healthcare and social services.

Led by the National Police Chiefs' Council, it reveals 262 people died in England and Wales as a result of abuse in the year to last March.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, the national policing lead on the issue, said: "The sustained nature of domestic homicide shows how deeply ingrained violence against women and girls is in our communities.

"The Domestic Homicide Project has now recorded over 1,000 domestic abuserelated deaths across a four-year period.

"The scale and impact is incomprehensible and as a society, we cannot delay action to prevent future deaths."