The coroner’s court in England has been criticised by families of domestic violence victims for an unwillingness to consider how abuse can drive people to suicide. Grieving loved ones of those who have taken their own lives after abuse said it was not a “joined-up process” whether inquests into suicide deaths consider the treatment victims were subjected to while they were alive. It is up to individual coroners to decide what evidence will be considered in the scope of the inquest, and up to them whether they will look at just the days and weeks prior to a person’s death, or hear evidence from a much wider timeframe – which can include the months and years of an abusive relationship. Most cases where someone has taken their own life after domestic abuse do not end in a criminal trial, which means that an inquest is often the first, or only, opportunity for allegations of abuse to be heard in any formal setting.…