Victims' letters not emphathetic

Improving communication with victims had been a key recommendation of a damning report by Sir Keir Starmer that criticised how the region’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) dealt with the cases of three women who accused an alleged IRA member of abusing them as children.

Assessing progress within the PPS two years on from Sir Keir’s report, inspectors raised concern about the quality of correspondence to victims.

The Criminal Justice Inspection NI (CJI) found that of nine main recommendations made by Sir Keir, four had been fully implemented, there had been substantial progress in implementing four others and limited progress on another.

The PPS asking the CJI to undertake the inspection was fulfilling a tenth recommendation by Sir Keir - to have progress independently reviewed.

Chief Inspector Brendan McGuigan said: “I am concerned that while there were some excellent examples of empathetic letters sent to victims which explained decisions in an easy to understand manner, just under half of the correspondence was assessed by inspectors not to be sufficiently empathetic.”

Mr McGuigan said inconsistencies were also identified around the level, detail and location of records kept.

“The issue of communication with victims and witnesses and record keeping are areas which CJI has highlighted in the past and one which we will return to as part of future inspection work on domestic violence and abuse and sexual violence and abuse,” he said.

Sir Keir’s original report criticised the PPS’s handling of the three women’s abuse claims and further accusations made by one of the woman - Mairia Cahill - that she was subject to interrogation by the IRA in the wake of the alleged abuse.