Victim notification scheme still ‘not good enough’, First Minister concedes

NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted the system for notifying victims of crime about the release of their attackers from prison is “not good enough”.

At FMQS, the First Minister accepted there were problems after Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told her fewer than 1 per cent of victims had been told about current imminent releases.

Only 37 victims out of 4,500 cases involving criminals sentenced to less than 18 months in jail had been informed, Mr Ross said, despite some of the cases involving sexual assault and domestic violence.

Mr Ross accused the Scottish Government of breaking a string of promises on the issue, and claimed the justice system was “stacked against victims”.

He said: “Less than 1% of these victims know when that criminal who ruined their live is going to get out. How can women who suffered the most horrific crimes, and their families, feel safe when they are being kept in the dark about the release of dangerous offenders?

“They have no idea if they will be walking down the street in their own community and come face to face with their attacker. The justice system is stacked against victims – we have to change.”

Ms Sturgeon denied the system was stacked against victims, but added: “I do think it is the case that the justice system, like all parts of our society, has to change to respond better to the needs of women who are subject to violence.

“It is the case that the Government is taking forward a range of changes and reforms, because some of what Douglas Ross has cited is not good enough – victim notification is one of those areas.”

Mr Ross also raised the case of 17-year-old Michelle Stewart, who was murdered in Ayrshire in 2008, and whose family have campaigned for tougher rules on offender release. Michelle’s sister, Lisa Stewart, recently complained her family had no warning if killer John Wilson would be in their local area.

The Stewart family has called for a “Michelle’s Law”, with exclusion zones designed to keep killers away from the families of their victims.

Mr Ross said the family was told earlier this year that changes to the tagging and GPS monitoring of offenders after release would be ready before the end of November.

He said: “This was a promise made to a family that have gone through the worst of circumstances that none of us can imagine, and, with less than a week to go, it sounds like that promise is not going to be kept.”

Ms Sturgeon suggested the Covid pandemic may have been to blame.

She said: “I don’t want to say definitively that this is the case here, but everybody in this chamber knows that certain commitment have unavoidably been affected by what we’ve been dealing with collectively over the past two years.

“These are important measures we need to continue to take, and keep our minds open to taking, to do all we can to keep women safe, to ensure that those who do commit acts of violence against women are brought to justice.”