Surge in Scots crime victims attempting suicide as justice revamp promised
dailyrecord.co.ukVictim Support Scotland has seen a dramatic surge in people it helps being at risk of suicide amid a large backlog of cases coming to court.
It revealed the shock rise as Justice Minister Keith Brown announced a major revamp of the courts system to provide more support to victims – especially women and girls.
Kate Wallace, Chief Executive of Victim Support Scotland (VSS), said that pre-Covid there were two to three cases each year of attempted suicide among victims – but now they were experiencing that number each month.She said: “Every single day we see the impact of the court backlog.
We know a number of people have attempted suicide and we have had to intervene.“We have had to get emergency ambulance services out to people.”Wallace said as well as delays in establishing court dates, constant adjournments were also compounding the stress victims are suffering.She said: “Delays in the process are really exacerbating some of the mental health issues people have and the trauma they are experiencing.“Some people are waiting three years when they expect a case to be over in one.
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