New victims’ champion: I came back to fix the system but it’s still letting people down

Exclusive: Helen Newlove, whose husband Garry was beaten to death by teen thugs, says Victims and Prisoners Bill ‘needs more teeth’

In her role as Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Newlove will champion the voices of victims and witnesses (Brian Lloyd Duckett)

In the wake of her husband Garry’s murder, Helen Newlove endured a gruelling 10-week trial as the drunken teenage thugs who kicked him to death were finally brought to justice.

She declared “Britain is broken” after the father-of-three, 47, was attacked in front of his daughters as he tried to confront teen vandals in 2007 – later earning herself a peerage for her campaigning and the job of victims’ commissioner, holding the office from 2013 to 2019.

Sixteen years after the murder, with the last of her husband’s three killers eligible for parole in the New Year, Baroness Newlove is still fighting to “level the playing field” for victims of crime.

In a key speech on Monday, she will tell the House of Lords that the government’s long-awaited Victims and Prisoners Bill is too weak and “needs more teeth” to ensure victims are treated fairly in our justice system.

In one of her first major interviews since she was reappointed as interim victims’ commissioner in October, she has called for:

• The victims’ code – which spells out how victims of crime can expect to be treated – to be enshrined in law, with police answerable to the victims’ commissioner for breaches of the code
• Victims of distressing antisocial behaviour to be entitled to support, even if police believe complaints have not met the criminal threshold
• Tougher rules to protect the privacy of rape and sexual assault victims whose medical history and background is often scrutinised in court, with free legal advice for victims

Baroness Newlove has been campaigning for a victims’ bill since 2015. But she said the draft legislation published earlier this year was a “sheer disappointment”, as she called for it to be strengthened to deliver real change for victims of crime.

“It’s a disappointment for victims because they have been waiting many, many years, with many promises,” she told The Independent, insisting that it needs much more work to ensure victims’ voices are heard.

“It’s great that it’s out there but it’s not ambitious. It’s weak, it needs more teeth.”

Garry Newlove was kicked to death by a gang in 2007 (PA)

But she vowed to finish what she started during her year-long return to the post, which had been left vacant after Dame Vera Baird dramatically quit last September, declaring the justice system was in “chaos”.

“I left the position but I never left the arena. I still get lots of emails from victims for advice and support,” Baroness Newlove said.

“I always said when Garry’s trial ended that he would never be a statistic. It’s about the human life that’s been lost, never mind just pieces of evidence, it’s about that human loss of life. My daughters lost their father at a young age. And if I can help other people and change it all, I will. I’m not going to go away.”

Although she has returned to a criminal justice system buckling under record court backlogs, a shortage of judges and a prison system at capacity, she is still focussed on ensuring victims have the confidence to report their crimes.

“We have got to make people feel that if they go in and report a crime that they feel they are taken seriously and the justice system follows their journey and it brings them along.”

Calling for guaranteed victim rights – not favours – she said enforcement of the victims’ code, which sets out a minimum level of service for victims in the criminal justice system, is too weak under the current draft Bill with no repercussions for those who fail to comply.

“The Victim’s Code is guidance. And unless it’s in law professionals won’t see that as anything but guidance. There’s got to be better compliance, accountability and we have got to move away from agencies marking their own homework,” she said.

Instead, she wants to see the code enshrined in statute on the front of the Bill, with her office to compile an annual compliance report on how agencies perform.

The 63-year-old also wants to see those subjected to antisocial behaviour to be granted access to victim support services, even if police believe it hasn’t crossed the criminal threshold.

Baroness Newlove has written to Rishi Sunak and the Government (PA)

She said the impact of persistent antisocial behaviour can be devastating and the behaviour can escalate with terrible consequences – as the Baroness knows all too well following the murder of her husband.

“I attended community meetings and said they won’t take it seriously until somebody loses their life. Little did I know that would be Garry,” she added.

She also called for the Bill to introduce tougher rules to protect rape and sexual assault victims from the “torment” of third party material – including medical and counselling notes – from being used in evidence without their permission.

“You are treating them like the offender. You put kid gloves round the offender. You don’t mention the antecedents do you, which is the character… and then you have got the professionals dissecting evidence about the victim.

“I don’t see why the victim should have to go through that. It’s torment enough.”

She told The Independent she had been left “scarred” by the sight of freezers filled with thousands of DNA samples from sexual assault victims who had decided not to pursue their attackers in the courts.

“If we are going to rip into the background of a victim, people are not going to come forward and we are going to have dangerous people going unpunished. How is that safe for the public?”