Bereaved mother welcomes £1.2 million to set up support service for families of homicide victims

The mother of murdered 40-year-old, Moira Jones, has welcomed funding for a new service to support the families of homicide victims.

Bea Jones says she hopes the money will end a "hit and miss" system which previously saw some bereaved relatives fall through "gaps" in the services available in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has announced £13.8 million will be granted for Victim Support Scotland over three years.

£1.2 million of that will go towards the new homicide service led by VSS, giving the families of those murdered or killed access to a dedicated case worker.

Mrs Jones' daughter was raped and murdered yards from her home, in Glasgow's Queen's Park in May 2008.

Mrs Jones, who established the charity ,The Moira Fund, has been campaigning for such a service over the last few years and says she is pleased it is finally being set up.

She said: "We are absolutely delighted and we'd been hoping for news like that for quite some time.

"It's all culminated in this fantastic news that Scotland is going to have a homicide support service."

Mrs Jones said she believes Scotland has previously lagged behind England and Wales, where a homicide support service was set up several years ago.

The new Scottish service will offer grieving families a single point of contact, a dedicated caseworker who can liaise with schools, employers, social services, medical and legal services on their behalf.

It is expected to reduce the number of families having to retell their story to many different organisations as they seek help.

Mrs Jones said of the English system: "Having a dedicated worker for each family means that there's not a 'hit and miss' system as there appeared to be in Scotland.

"In Scotland, there were a number of very good health agencies, but there were gaps in between them and it was worrying that families were dropping down the gaps and sometimes not getting into the system at all.

"Our hopes are that there will be huge improvements with the Scottish homicide service."

Mrs Jones said she and her family were "lucky" to have the support of relatives, friends and the police in the "hellish" period following Moira's death. However, she stated there were no specific homicide services available at the time.

She says her work with The Moira Fund has helped her cope. She added:

"Until the trial, it got worse and worse and worse and the trial was the culmination of that awfulness. I think at that stage I was ready to break.

"But I had just made an announcement about setting up The Moira Fund and that perhaps saved me because it was then full time on The Moira Fund.

"It's still hard (but) as far as I'm concerned, I intend to go on with this as long as I can."

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson announced the new funding on a visit to VSS, which received £4.2 million in 2017/18.

He said: "I am aware that victims and their families often have to turn to multiple organisations to get information about the criminal justice process and find out what support they are entitled to receive. This can feel like they are being passed from one organisation to another - adding to their trauma when they are most vulnerable.

"I want to improve the situation and that is why I am announcing funding for VSS to work in partnership with criminal justice and victim support bodies to develop a new approach."

VSS chief executive Kate Wallace said: "The creation of the homicide service and the victim-centred approach are very positive new developments and we will be working closely with all our partners to make these a reality".

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