'Victims' Families Need More Rights In Court'

The rich are protected more by the courts system than the families of murder victims, the Government's victim tsar has said.

Louise Casey called for a new law to guarantee the rights of victims' families to help them cope better with the ordeal of going through the justice system.

She said that while wealthy celebrities were pursuing injunctions to protect their privacy in the High Court, victims' families were "down the road" being put through traumatic ordeals in the witness box.

Victims' families "were not wealthy", she said, adding: "I do sometimes wonder whether if they were wealthy, would we treat them in the same way?"

The report comes after Milly Dowler's family hit out at the "horrifying ordeal" of her murder trial last month, which made members of her family feel they were the ones in the dock .

Ms Casey said: "I think what the Dowler case did is throw the spotlight on this rather odd scenario where in one court we have rich people pursuing their civil injunctions ... whereas down the road in the criminal court a family is being stripped in no uncertain terms of some of the moments with their family.

"If the message that comes out of the Dowler family's case is that 'It's such a horrific experience, don't do it', then actually our system needs to be looked at."

She added: "Bereaved families have few rights, no real route of complaint, they are often given little information and sometimes treated as an inconvenience in a legal game.

"Now is the time for something concrete to be set out in law - promises are no longer good enough.

"The system must be levelled up so victims and bereaved families are no longer seen as bystanders or an inconvenience as the wheels of justice turn."

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke admitted no level of support could ever "make things right for families bereaved through crime".

"But we can do more to ensure that families get the help they need and that the practical impacts of bereavement are minimised," he said.

An extra £500,000 to increase the number of professional caseworkers and "provide better training for those working with people bereaved by homicide" will be made available, he said.

A survey of more than 400 bereaved families, thought to be the largest of its kind, found one in five included someone who suffered alcohol problems following the death.

Four in five suffered trauma-related symptoms and the same proportion had to wait for more than a month to bury their loved ones, the poll showed.

Around three in five also suffered difficulties managing their finances, with the average cost to families hitting £37,000, ranging from probate to funerals to cleaning up the crime scene.