In 2019 David McGreavy, who murdered three young children at a house in Worcester in 1973 and impaled their bodies on a spiked fence, was released from prison despite objections from the children’s mother, Elsie Urry.
Judges presiding over parole board hearings will have to consider the views of the victims before making decisions on releasing murderers and other serious offenders.
The bill is being scrutinised by the House of Commons justice select committee and on Tuesday Baird was invited to give evidence, along with Nicole Jacobs, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, and Claire Waxman, Victims’ Commissioner for London.
Baird said she thought it was good that victims or their relatives should be allowed to attend parole hearings but she said: “They need to be fully informed about what it’s going to be like ... the focus of the parole hearing is totally on the defendant ... and the real worry is that people may be walking into a revictimisation experience by hearing everything one side when they’re not expecting it.”
She said what needed to happen was that police victim liaison officers, who usually help families through the trial process, would need to be re-engaged for the parole hearings and she said that would be an “immense burden” which could be quite costly.
Jacobs said: “There is a lot of good in this bill but it doesn’t go for enough.”
She said the Victims’ Code, as set out in the bill, needed to have “more teeth” to bring police forces and other agencies to book for “chronic failures.”
Waxman criticised the definition of “victim” as set out in the bill.
She said: “The main exclusion is relatives, bereaved family members, who are ... not covered under the bill’s definition ... and that is quite confusing and counter-intuitive ... this is quite a large omission.”
Waxman also called for there to be more support for those whose loved ones were murdered abroad who, she said, went through an “unimaginable trauma.”
The bill would give victims the opportunity challenge a decision not to prosecute and guarantee they will be informed of the progress of their case throughout the process.
It would also increase the victim surcharge penalty fee—which is paid by convicted criminals—by 20 percent and the money raised, which could be £20 million ($25 million) by 2025, would be used to fund rape support centres.
