A vulnerable young man became a victim twice ― of the crime committed against him and also of the service he received from a youth offending team and his local council.

The young man was the victim of a robbery. Trafford Youth Offending Team offered the young man the opportunity to take part in restorative justice, as set out in the Victims’ Code. This provides opportunities for those directly affected by a crime to agree on how to deal with the offence and its consequences. But both the Youth Offending Team (YOT) and Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council failed to handle the case properly.

A joint investigation by the Parliamentary Ombudsman Service and the Local Government Ombudsman found failures and injustice by both the YOT and the council in the handling of the case. The young man was treated in a “degrading and inhumane manner” despite being the victim of the crime, says the report.

The PHSO’s jurisdiction allows them to investigate complaints regarding adherence to the Victims’ Code, while the LGO looks into complaints about council services, which was the reason for the joint investigation by both bodies.

The ombudsmen found several breaches of the Victims’ Code. The most significant failing was that the young man was denied full involvement in the restorative justice process. He was not offered alternatives to a face-to-face meeting with the offenders. Nor were his wishes about the type of community work he wanted the offenders to carry out taken on board because there was not enough time.

The YOT also failed to understand the impact the process was having on the young man’s emotional health. When the case was escalated to the council the father described their conduct as “shambolic and unprofessional”, showing “total disregard to the damage caused”.

The outcome was “unforgivable amounts of stress” for the young man, making him question whether he had “done the right thing” in coming forward to report the crime.

The council agreed to apologise to the family for maladministration and for breach of the Victims’ Code, following intervention by the ombudsmen. It also agreed to pay the family £2,500 compensation for causing distress, stress and frustration to the family and for the lost opportunity for the young man to be fully involved in the restorative justice process.

Julie Mellor, Parliamentary Ombudsman, says:

”This case is a prime example of how failure to follow the Victims Code can lead to distress and lost opportunities to achieve justice and ‘closure’ for victims of crime. As the current Victims’ Code review is concluded and the new Code is published, we are calling for training of all criminal justice staff and active monitoring of compliance with the Code. We also want to see effective complaint handling when complaints are received about failures to comply with the Victims’ Code. A Code that is not being followed is of little value.”

Dr Jane Martin, Local Government Ombudsman, said:

“This is a classic demonstration of how an opportunity to resolve and remedy poor service swiftly was missed by failing to deal with the complaint effectively from the start.

”While I appreciate that Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council’s final response to the victim and his family took a number of steps to put things right, this case demonstrates how an opportunity to remedy poor service can be missed by failing to deal quickly and effectively with a complaint. I hope that both Trafford Youth Offending Team and the Council can learn from our findings.”

Article date: 17 July 2013