Head of Scottish Violence Reduction Unit hopes Scotland will be murder free in future

The head of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit is telling us he believes there could be no more murders with continued investment in mental health and addiction services.

Jimmy Paul took on the job last year and works with third sector organisations to tackle the root causes of crime.

Bold plans

He exclusively told Greatest Hits Radio: "My vision is that our work will not need to exist in 25 or 30 years because we will have achieved our mission of making Scotland, by far, the safest place in the world to live.

"These are lofty ambitions, but our accountability is to those who experience violence and I am determined to achieve that mission."

Jimmy and the team work with a range of third sector organisations over the country to tackle the root causes of crime.

Investing in mental health and addiction services

He tells our Senior Reporter Callum McQuade he would like to see poverty fall and his own experience of growing up in care is a driving force to create change.

He added: "Our mantra is violence is preventable and not inevitable.

"We need to work together to address the root cause issues like adverse childhood experiences, perceptions of poverty and mental health issues.

"These are not issues the police can resolve, we've got to act in a more upstream way."

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