For every crime there is a victim

IMAGINE you have been the victim of a serious crime.

As well as coming to terms with what has happened, you are frightened you might have to give evidence in court.

Desperate for help, you call Victim Support. But you are greeted by a recorded message: "Please call back between 9am and 1.30pm, during office opening hours."

Would you have the courage to leave a message or phone back, or would you just give up and decide your call had been wasted?

That was the plight facing crime victims until the charity decided to change the way it operates in North Yorkshire.

Steve Twynham, chief executive of Victim Support North Yorkshire, said: "When a victim phones us, they are usually very distressed. They do not want to speak to an answer machine. They want to know there is going to be someone at the other end of the line when they make that call."

And uppermost in his mind is the knowledge that going to court can be an intimidating experience for anyone.

"We have managers at every crown and magistrates court in North Yorkshire, so I often have to go to court," he said. "I still find it intimidating, going through security and being searched."

Victim Support opened its new unit, based in York, on April 3, to support victims of crime across York and North Yorkshire. It is the first of its kind in the UK and its success is already being closely monitored both nationally and internationally.

Mr Twynham hopes this is the first step towards his ultimate goal - providing care for victims 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The biggest hurdle, he knows, will be funding.

"The new unit is already making a big difference," said Mr Twynham. "Historically we ran our service from five different offices across the county. Each office used to open on week days until about 1.30pm - but now we are open from 10am to 8pm."

Victims are usually referred to the charity by the police, but they can refer themselves. They can be referred if they have been victims of burglary, assault, theft or more serious crimes such as domestic abuse, serious sexual assault, hate crime, or homicide.

Last year, the charity had about 16,000 referrals from across the county, but numbers have already shot up since the new centre opened. They are dealing with 350 new victims each week.

One of the main roles of the new centre is to make sure staff have telephone contact with every referral they receive.

And it seems to be working - since the centre opened, the number of victims the charity contacts personally has risen to 59 per cent from 18 per cent.

Mr Twynham put this largely down to the centre's later opening hours.

"The people we don't make contact with are the ones we can't get hold of on the phone - and it's a lot easier to contact people in the evenings," he said. "We have most success between 5pm and 8pm."

Under the new regime those initial calls, offering help and advice, are made by specially employed care officers, rather than volunteers, so the volunteers can spend more time providing support to those who take up the offer.

Mr Twynham said: "Before, they spent a lot of their time making contact and being told: 'No thanks, I don't need any help now'."

Victim Support is usually contacted by the police the day after a crime is reported. They try to phone victims on the same day, and if that fails a letter is sent out the next day.

Each victim is asked exactly what kind of support they would like to receive, so the service can be tailored to suit their needs.

When a volunteer is assigned to a victim, they stay with them throughout their ordeal.

But by centralising the service, will support in the community be lost? Mr Twynham thinks not.

"We realise the value of supporting people in their local community," he said. "We used to have five offices across the county but, although we are centralised now, we have about 35 places where people can meet volunteers within their own communities.

"We do home visits as well, should they want to meet a volunteer at home."

Another focus of the new system is to cut down on administration, aided by a new computer system.

He said: "Historically, we had managers in offices taking information from each police incident unit, and putting referrals into our database. That used to take about 60 hours a week, but with our new system it takes about 20 minutes a day.

"That gives our care workers time to do what they really should be doing - which is helping victims as opposed to administration."

- Victim Support is an independent national charity which offers free and confidential information and advice, whether or not the crime has been reported to the police, and regardless of when it happened.

- It is not a counselling service. It provides practical advice and help. Trained volunteers offer someone to talk to in confidence, information on police and court procedures, help in dealing with other organisations and information about compensation and insurance.

- Victim Support has 65 volunteers in North Yorkshire.

- The charity has been working in the county for about 22 years.

- Each court area used to have its own branch, but they amalgamated to become Victim Support North Yorkshire in 2002.

- It costs about £400 to provide basic training for one Victim Support volunteer. There are two levels of training - core training for burglary, theft and assault, and further training for more serious crimes such as sexual assault and homicide. There has been an increase in the number of victims of serious crimes being referred.

- Volunteers are asked to dedicate at least two hours a week to the job. Volunteers are getting younger, with many being graduates, aged 22 or 23.

If you would like to become a Victim Support volunteer, please phone 0845 071 0871.

Sarah and her family were the victims of an aggravated burglary: "It is still upsetting to talk about. I was at work and my two children were at home with some of their friends when three young men came into the house with knives and CS gas.

They held my 16-year-old daughter, who is asthmatic, at knifepoint, and refused to let her get her inhaler.

My son, who is 20, was kicked in the teeth. He was threatened with a knife and had CS gas sprayed in his eyes. They even threatened to stab our dog.

At the end of it, they held a knife to my daughter and threatened to come back and kill her if she called the police.

My children were too scared to ring the police so they rang me instead and I rang 999.

The burglars stole jewellery, £400 cash and they took my son's bank card. They made him give them his pin number, and emptied his bank account.

The police said this was about as nasty as it gets.

They told me about Victim Support and I rang the office and spoke to somebody. Within 24 hours, we were contacted by a counsellor and they came to the house and spoke to us.

Then I spoke to a woman on my own because I am trying to hold everything together for my family, and a male counsellor came and spoke to the lads.

They are coming back again on Monday to speak to me and my daughter.

They have been absolutely fantastic. I can honestly say they have been my backbone. I can't ask for more than that.

I am struggling to cope with it because of the kids, and they don't want to pour their feelings out to me because we are all trying to protect each other from what's happened.

I would recommend Victim Support to anybody. They don't push you - you tell them as much or as little as you want to. You are not pressurised to relive it."

Michelle was 15 when a sex attacker indecently exposed himself to her, and she had to give evidence in court: "I was walking home from my youth club when a man jumped out of his car in front of me. He was completely naked.

I'd read in the local newspaper that police were looking for a sex offender who kept flashing at young girls and assumed it must be the same man.

I went back to the youth club, wrote down a description and called the police. I was taken to the police station and made a statement. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have time to be frightened or upset until later.

A couple of weeks after it had happened I was asked to identify the man in some photographs, and then found out I was going to have to be a witness in court.

That's when I got really scared. I'd never been inside a court building and didn't know anything about the legal process.

I used to have nightmares about him finding out I was going to give evidence and coming to get me. It sounds stupid now but I used to convince myself he was hiding under my bed.

Then, before the case went to court, our house was burgled. I came home from school and interrupted them. That made me even more paranoid.

Victim Support helped me through it. I needed someone to talk to who was outside my circle of family and friends. They were able to support me in a way the people close to me couldn't.

They provided me with information about going to court and giving evidence, so when the time came it wasn't so terrifying.

I found talking about what had happened very embarrassing. Victim Support warned me I would have to talk about what happened in a lot of detail, which meant I felt less humiliated and was more prepared for the questions I faced in court.

I don't think I could have done it without Victim Support, but I'm glad I did because the man was convicted."