Shaun Woodburn’s father in call for victims’ commissioner

The father of a man killed in Edinburgh has called for a victims’ commissioner to be established to help people hit by crime as he held a meeting with Scotland’s justice secretary.

Kevin Woodburn said he wants the post to be created so victims going through the legal system have somewhere they can turn to for help and advice.

He described his meeting with Scotland’s Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf yesterday as “very productive”, saying: “I’ve come away with an open mind that it’s still something that is on the table.”

Mr Woodburn’s son, fatherof-one Shaun, 30, died after being attacked by a teenager outside Gladstone’s pub in the Leith area of Edinburgh in the early hours of 1 January, 2017.

The teenager was sentenced to four years’ detention after being convicted of culpable homicide.

Mr Woodburn said his experiences have led him to feel there was a lack of transparency within the overall legal system.

“There was nobody to actually speak to about anything,” he said. “There was nobody to actually turn to to understand the legalities of the situation that we found ourselves in.”

He praised the work of victims’ support groups, but said their expertise was in emotional, rather than legal, issues “... we had nobody to turn to for help.”