The charity said that its 2025-29 strategic plan reflected growing demand and more complexity in these areas of its work.
Manager Jenny Murphy said that work had already started, including offering a specific service for victims of sexual crime.
‘Our ISVA (independent sexual violence advocate) service is kind of new over the last two years,’ she said. ‘It started as part of the Willow House pilot, but since January of this year they’ve taken it out of the pilot because they’ve seen what a success it is and how much it’s needed, and that is now a permanent service.’
Victims of fraud are now also supported by a specialist service, as the number and complexity of scams and deceptions continue to increase, causing significant emotional as well as economic harm.
‘Most of the time, fraud has taken place outside of our jurisdiction. If you were a victim, what used to happen if you reported it to the police – and not everyone does – is that they would give you a crime number to report to Report Fraud in the UK,’ said Mrs Murphy.
‘People get excited thinking they’re going to help but actually Report Fraud are only there for gathering statistics. They’re not really there to support anyone. That’s kind of a dead end, so a lot of people are left in limbo.
‘We’ve had a few successful cases where we’ve really managed to support emotionally. Perhaps we did some practical support as well – a lot of people don’t know what their options are with regard to the banks and what they can ask for and what support they can access.’
Backing from The Guernsey Community Foundation and NatWest helped Victim Support hire someone a couple of months ago who is working on a project to improve services for victims of fraud.
‘That person’s role will be to look into setting up procedures and processes,’ said Mrs Murphy.
‘They will get to know all the different institutions – the banks, the ombudsman, the different financial services – really to figure out what the best routes are when people are victims of fraud.’
‘It’s really important people know what their rights are’
Compensation for victims, a victims’ code and more support for children are new services which Victim Support hopes to establish in the next five years.
They are a large part of a new five-year plan which the charity has unveiled to strengthen justice for local victims of crime and witnesses.
A compensation scheme has been discussed for many years and Victim Support manager Jenny Murphy said many people were surprised to find out that one had still not been developed.
‘We are probably one of the only places in Europe which doesn’t have a victims’ compensation scheme. Even Jersey has one. But here, if you’ve been a victim of a crime, there’s nothing,’ she said.
‘That was already an issue when we first came along 28 years ago and we haven’t really got anywhere. We really want to put focused effort into getting something off the ground. We obviously need buy-in from the States for that.’
Mrs Murphy said that establishing a code for victims would provide them with clarity about what to expect from various services involved in the justice process.
The UK has had a code for some time which has now been converted into law.
‘It’s basically going through what you could expect as a victim of a crime,’ she said. ‘What support you’ll get from each institution – so, how the police will treat you, what support you’ll get from the police, the same from prosecution and all the different areas.
‘We feel that’s really important to make sure everyone gets what they need and knows what their rights are.’
At present, Victim Support assists only adults, and Mrs Murphy felt that child victims sometimes needed more attention.
‘We kind of circumvent that a little bit. We sometimes offer support to parents with what’s happening through the criminal justice process and they can then support their children.
‘But we do see quite a few victims of crime who are children or young people and there aren’t really any dedicated support services for them.
‘We probably won’t be able to do it this year, but within the next five years what we want to see is probably having a dedicated resource to support children and young people who are victims of crime.’
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