Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) has warned that an insufficient emphasis on the personal experiences of those in the justice system has had a lifelong impact on some victims, their families, and those closest to them.

In a new report, the watchdog said the experience of victims and witnesses in the criminal justice system has improved since it first examined the issue 14 years ago, but there is still more to be done.

Jacqui Durkin, chief inspector of criminal justice in Northern Ireland, said: “This inspection found evidence of dedicated individuals from across the criminal justice system and the voluntary sector working to identify personal needs and provide meaningful support to children and adults who were both victims and witnesses, during a very difficult time in their lives.

“We also identified that victims and witnesses remained fundamentally unaware of their rights to information, support and protection and that services to assist them were still not being consistently delivered to a quality standard across Northern Ireland.

“Each victim and witness in the criminal justice system has their own personal journey and individual needs. They need to be listened to and they need to believe they have been heard. Providing services and support tailored to their requirements goes hand in hand with ensuring that victims and witnesses get the personal help they need, so they are better supported to give their evidence and contribute to the often long process to bring offenders to justice.”

When the justice system fails to do this, it has a negative impact on public confidence in the justice system and deters victims from reporting crime, which in turn enables perpetrators to go on to commit further offences against more victims, Ms Durkin said.

The watchdog’s inspection found that there was often too much focus by the criminal justice organisations on statistics, meeting targets and independence and insufficient emphasis on personal experiences which often had a lifelong impact on the victim, their families and those closest to them.

The report includes four strategic and 12 operational recommendations to support the continued development of better services for victims and witnesses.

“We identified that substantial work is needed to raise awareness within the community about the Victim Charter and Witness Charter which set out the rights, support and protection available to victims and witnesses. We have recommended work to raise the profile of the rights set out in the Charters and ease of access to them is taken forward by the Department of Justice in the next 12 months,” said Ms Durkin.

“We have also made a number of strategic recommendations to senior leaders in criminal justice organisations like the PSNI and the PPS to improve the identification of individual victim and witness needs.”

The report also contains a number of operational recommendations designed to assist staff engaging directly with victims and witnesses and improve partnership working across the criminal justice system with organisations such as Victim Support Northern Ireland and the NSPCC.

“The Victim and Witness Care Unit which provides information and assistance to victims and witnesses throughout the criminal justice process and is operated by staff from the PPS and PSNI, is a beneficial step towards supporting and helping victims and witnesses,” Ms Durkin said.

“The current pandemic has resulted in further delays to court hearings and trials and it is vital that victims and witnesses are kept informed and engaged to enable them to give their evidence and support prosecutions.”