Hailing the support on hand for crime victims

Devon and Cornwall Police's Victim Care Unit is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Here, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner describes the VCU's work and how it helped a stalking victim and a Devon pensioner traumatised by an intruder in the middle of the night to overcome their ordeals

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A VITAL service that offers ongoing free support and advice to all victims of crime has been praised for helping people when they need it the most.

Devon and Cornwall Police Victim Care Unit (VCU) is there to provide independent and confidential support to people of all ages - regardless of whether something has been reported to the police or not.

It is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and among the thousands of people it has helped is a 90-year-old Devon woman who was left severely traumatised after she awoke in the middle of night when an intruder broke into her home and is said to have tried to smother her with her duvet while she lay defenceless in her bed.

Fortunately, she was able to free her thumb to activate a personal alarm on her wrist, which caused her attacker to flee. He was later arrested by police and imprisoned.

The terrifying incident took place a couple of years ago, and since then the pensioner has been receiving ongoing support from the VCU to help her overcome her ordeal. She has benefited from being referred to the free NHS talking therapy service, Talkworks, and through the help of the VCU has received compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), after being initially refused, and after her attacker was released from prison his conditions were extended to being excluded from the town where she lives.

The courageous victim recalled: "I’m lucky, really, because I believe he would have killed me, as he was in a frenzy, but I survived and I’m alive. I can still remember it so vividly. I don’t think that will ever go, but I can now talk about it thanks to all the support I’ve received.

"Initially, you never think you will come out of this black hole, but there is all this help you can get. It sounds dramatic, but I don’t know what I would have done without the VCU.