Call for law change to prevent abusive partners from inheriting victims’ estates

Should somebody guilty of domestic abuse be allowed to inherit the estate of a spouse who has taken their own life?

A person guilty of manslaughter or murder is already prevented from inheriting their victim’s estate by what’s known as the Forfeiture Rule.

One man whose mother took her own life after suffering domestic violence has met the prime minister to press the case for extending the law to cover such cases.

Tom Guha’s campaign had been raised in parliament by the Labour MP Florence Eshalomi.

After the meeting at Number 10 took place we spoke with Tom Guha and his MP to find out how it went, and to hear about how his mother Roma, a former NHS GP, who took her own life in what the coroner concluded was “anxiety precipitated by a domestic violence incident”.