The Sunday Post has highlighted a deeply painful reality: some victims of domestic abuse go on to take their own lives. The story of Adrienne McCartney is devastating. With the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Act 2025 now law, these reviews are no longer just "justified"—they are a statutory mandate. As the system prepares to go live this April, Scotland has a duty to ensure that "examining what went wrong" doesn't become a narrow, narrative-driven exercise.

Domestic Abuse and Homicide Reviews are not controversial in principle. They are meant to identify systemic failures and prevent repetition. That is a serious and necessary aim.

But once suicide becomes part of the policy frame, a second duty arises.

Scotland must ensure that reform reflects the full reality of harm, not a single narrative strand.

If suicide linked to abuse is recognised as a public protection issue, then it is a human issue.

Women suffer abuse. Women die. That must be acknowledged without qualification.

But men are also victims of domestic abuse. Men also die by suicide. Some of those deaths will include abuse histories, system failures, and missed opportunities for intervention.

When public debate defines suicide after abuse almost exclusively as violence against women, two risks emerge:

• Services train themselves to look primarily for one pattern of victimhood
• Other victims become statistically and culturally invisible

A victim-centred system should not require a person to match a cultural template before risk is taken seriously.

As the National Oversight Committee begins selecting the first cases for review this spring, several questions matter:

• How will the "Sift Stage" operate in practice to ensure case selection is evidence-led rather than media-led?
• Will the review panels actively seek out male victims, who are statistically less likely to have been "flagged" by services despite a history of coercive control?
• How will causation be distinguished from correlation in suicide cases, especially given the new "Suicide Contributing Factor" definition in the 2026 guidance?
• Will findings be transparent and anonymised so the public can see what systemic failures look like?

The Sunday Post coverage also links to "Demi’s Law", proposals to treat every suicide with a domestic abuse history as a potential murder scene. While the Justice Secretary’s pledge to enhance forensic protocols is a response to tragedy, we must ask: how do we balance the "duty to see the whole picture" with the presumption of innocence? If a scene is forensically processed through a lens of "presumed homicide," we risk a system that seeks to confirm a narrative rather than discover the truth.

Every expansion of state power must be matched with procedural safeguards. That is not a defence of abusers; it is a defence of justice itself.

If Scotland widens the justice response under the pressure of tragedy, it must simultaneously protect:

• Evidential neutrality
• The presumption of innocence
• Proportionality in sentencing
• The ability of the innocent to challenge allegation

A justice system cannot protect victims by quietly weakening fairness. If it does, it creates a different form of harm.

It is possible to honour women lost to abuse while acknowledging that the story is larger than one gender.

If stigma suppresses reporting for women, the same logic requires examination of whether stigma suppresses reporting for men.

If suicide after abuse demands national reflection, then that reflection must include every victim whose life ended following systemic failure, regardless of sex.

Otherwise, reform risks becoming narrative-driven rather than evidence-driven.

And once policy becomes narrative-led, it becomes selective.

None of this diminishes the seriousness of violence against women.

It affirms a principle.

Justice must protect the vulnerable.
It must also protect the unseen.
It must also protect the innocent.

A review framework that is truly victim-centred must centre victims as individuals, not categories.

If Scotland is serious about confronting suicide linked to abuse, it must be serious about confronting all of it.

If you’re in danger or need urgent help

• Police Scotland – Domestic abuse advice and reporting options
• Police Scotland – Contact details (999 emergency, 101 non-emergency)

If you’re a man experiencing domestic abuse in Scotland

• AMIS (Abused Men in Scotland) – Scotland’s helpline for male victims
• mygov.scot – Support for male victims of domestic abuse

If you need mental health or suicide support in Scotland

• Breathing Space – Confidential support for low mood, depression and anxiety
• Samaritans – 24/7 emotional support

If you’re a victim of crime and want support navigating the system

• Victim Support Scotland – Request support
• Police Scotland – Victim support services

If you want to contact your MSP

• Scottish Parliament – Find and contact your MSP

If you want to read the Domestic Homicide & Suicide Review framework

• Scottish Government – Draft statutory guidance on Domestic Homicide & Suicide Reviews
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland – Domestic Homicide & Suicide Review standards
• Scottish Government – Domestic Homicide Review Taskforce

If you’re affected by abuse or accusation, or supporting someone who is, the links above are a starting point.

If you believe Scotland’s reforms must protect all victims and preserve due process, write to your MSP. Ask how the 2026 Statutory Guidance will ensure male victims are not "sifted out" and how the Oversight Committee will protect evidential neutrality when investigating deaths that the police have already marked as non-suspicious.