Domestic abuse perpetrators 'don't fear the system', says Commissioner

The response to domestic abuse-related suicides must improve, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner has told BBC News, warning perpetrators will continue to offend unless they fear the consequences of their actions.

Nicole Jacobs' comments come as the sister of a 23-year-old woman who died by suicide says she believes domestic abuse was a factor which led to her death, despite the court not linking it directly.

Skye Nicholls from Liss, Hampshire, died in 2023 and her partner, James Edwards, pleaded guilty to two counts of controlling or coercive behaviour.

A government spokesperson said: "This is a tragic loss which underlines the devastating impact abusive behaviour can have."

Jacobs says abusers feel "that they could possibly get away with it" and adds that "we should have a system that is able to hold perpetrators to account".

Skye's sister Robyn says she misses her every day: "I purposely don't really look at photos of her and videos and her singing and stuff, because I do get upset.

"What always pops into my mind when I think about Skye is her laugh. She was so funny."

As a child, Skye was adopted and moved to Hampshire, while Robyn remained in care in Newcastle.

It was only after her sister's death that Robyn says she began to understand the abuse her sister had experienced: "She was not messaging people, she was not meeting up. She would make plans, but then never turned up.

"And a lot of her friends had messages saying 'James is here. I can't talk'. So it was very much that she was being isolated.

"I believe the domestic abuse in Skye's relationship led to her suicide."

Robyn also believes the abuse her sister suffered reflects a failure to hold perpetrators to account.

Skye met Edwards while she was pregnant and believed she had found someone who wanted to care for both her and her unborn child, Robyn said.

After Skye's death, her family discovered she had secretly recorded videos, messages and photographs documenting the abuse.

The material included footage of Edwards telling her to kill herself.

She had stored the evidence in a hidden folder on her phone. Together with videos she had shared with friends, it was passed to police.

Home Office figures show that police in England and Wales recorded 49,557 offences of coercive control in the year ending March 2025.

Separate Ministry of Justice figures show that 853 people were convicted of controlling or coercive behaviour in the year ending December 2024.

Although the figures cover different reporting periods and are not directly comparable, Jacobs says: "Until we have a situation where perpetrators fear the system and the sanction for their behaviour, we will have that constant pattern of chancing it and thinking that they could possibly get away with it, and that leaves victims very exposed."

Jacobs says the response to domestic abuse-related suicides needs to improve: "In fact, what we know now is that suicide is overtaking homicide in terms of death that relates to domestic abuse.

"That should shock us all and we should have a system that is able to hold perpetrators to account."

She added that the government's Violence Against Women and Girls strategy did not do enough to address domestic abuse-related suicides: "What it doesn't have enough of is what we do to improve our response to suicide.

"It should be in our police reforms, for example.

"It should be in all of the kind of work that we're doing daily with the police in terms of our expectations of what they would do in these circumstances."

When sentencing Edwards, Judge Recorder Bebb KC said: "I will not sentence you on the basis that you caused her death.

"I am satisfied that your behaviour made her more vulnerable, put her in a darker place, and contributed towards a decline in her mental state that ultimately led her to take her own life."

Edwards was originally sentenced to 27 months' imprisonment before successfully appealing against the length of his sentence.

The Court of Appeal reduced it to 21 months, made it clear he had not been sentenced on the basis that his offending had caused Skye's death.

Robyn said the reduction deepened her family's grief: "He got six months taken off, which meant he only served around 10 months in prison.

"She was only 23 and her life was gone, and he got 10 months.

"I think what should change is the sentencing guidelines. I think the overall sentence should be higher for people like this."

She believes greater understanding of coercive control is essential: "It absolutely brainwashes somebody, and even when people get out of that situation, they're still very much damaged.

Skye's parents, Andrew and Ashlie, said her death has left the family "broken" and that "life feels less bright, like a light has gone out."

In a statement, the Ministry of Justice told the BBC: "This is a tragic loss which underlines the devastating impact abusive behaviour can have.

"We are placing domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms to help victims, and we have commissioned a review into whether manslaughter offences can be applied when abuse may have driven someone to suicide to bring justice to perpetrators."

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