Calls for Scotland to look to Nordic 'Barnahus' model to help victims of child abuse

In Scotland, children face going through a system that is designed for adults and can involve lengthy delays, having to go to court and having little access to support to help them recover.

Mary Glasgow, director of children and family services and external affairs at Scottish charity Children 1st, said the situation was in contrast to many Nordic countries, which have dedicated “child-friendly” centres for young victims or witnesses of crime to attend instead of court.

“We constantly hear of the concerns of children and their parents about the experience of children having to go to court – either as victims or witnesses – which quite frankly is a national scandal,” she said.

“We had visitors from Norway who were absolutely stunned that we still take children into an adult court building, never mind subject them to an adult court process.”

The experiences of children in their own words gathered by the charity reveal the devastating impact of being caught in a system designed for adults.

One 13-year-old girl, who saw her abuser’s trial postponed four times, said: “Mum was angry. Gran was calling me a liar. I couldn’t handle school any more. Every time they cancelled the trial, I felt worse.”

A 14-year-old boy told how he was left as traumatised by the court process as the abuse: “I know I should feel better now he is in jail, but I keep having flashbacks of giving evidence.”

The problem has been recognised and there have been attempts to improve the system. For example, the Victim and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 granted children and other vulnerable witnesses the right to special measures when giving evidence, such as using a live TV link.

But this addresses only a small part of the problem. Take the case of Jane, aged 13, who had to give evidence against her dad in 2014. She was told she could use a live television link to give evidence, but her experience was still traumatic.

She went to the court at 9.30am and had to wait in a “dirty” room with nothing to do until she was called to give evidence at 4.15pm.

She said: “Different people kept walking in and out of the room I was waiting in. I didn’t know who they were or what they were doing. They didn’t say anything to me.

“I began to feel scared that maybe my Dad would come in and that I would see him.”

Campaigners want Scotland to look towards the Barnahus – or children’s house - model which was developed in Iceland in 1998. This is a dedicated centre where children can be interviewed by specially trained police officers, have medical examinations and receive crisis therapy sessions – all under one roof.

Statistics show between 1995 and 1997, there were 49 convictions for child sexual abuse in Iceland. By 2011-2013, that had risen to 101.

It has now been adopted in various forms in countries including Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania and Hungary.

But Bragi Gudbrandsson, general director of the government agency for child protection in Iceland, who founded the country’s Barnahus, pointed out it is not just achieving justice, but also providing adequate support for victims.

“You will never manage to get all the perpetrators behind bars,” he said. “But you will have the power to help children.”

The first 33 Barnahus in Sweden was opened in the city of Linköping in 2005. It is housed in a single-storey building which has the feeling of a nursery or primary school – rooms with bright decorations, toys scattered about, TVs and DVDs, comfy sofas and cushions and drawings pinned to the walls.

Everything has been carefully designed to minimise anxiety for the child, but also help them to reveal what has happened. In one room, for example, there is a sandpit in the centre with tiny wooden figures of people, houses and trees.

The centre staff explain this is used to help children show them what happened, such as the case of a five-year-old girl who was referred by social services after she witnessed her father badly beating her mother. She was having nightmares and refusing to talk about the experience, but was able to use the sandpit figures to explain.

Interviews with children are conducted by a specially trained police officers and watched through video link by other professionals involved in the case - such as the public prosecutor - in an adjacent room. They are recorded to be used as evidence in any subsequent court case.

Different countries use varying systems – in Iceland, for example, just one interview is used to minimise the number of times the child has to repeat their story.

But in Sweden defence lawyers can request another interview to put further questions to the child through the specially trained officer. Experts say in most cases this declined, as the accused does not want any further details to be revealed.

This is an approach which is it believed could be adopted in Scotland to address the traditionally “adversarial” nature of the justice system, which means two sides oppose each other in court.

Last week Scotland’s Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said he would make changes in the law to spare child witnesses from having to give evidence and be cross-examined in court.

His pledge came as the Promise project, a network of European countries set up to discuss the Barnahus model, held a conference in Linköping. It was attended by a representative from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) and from Children 1st.

Anne Longfield, England’s Children’s Commissioner, who has been championing the Barnahus model south of the border, spoke at the meeting. The Home Office is investing £7.2 million on two Barnahus pilots in London, which are expected to open next year.

Longfield told the conference: “A police officer said to me a few months ago that if his own daughter was abused and asked whether she should report it, he actually couldn’t say with his hand on heart that he would advise her to – he knew what children were going through. That was chilling to me.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said potential models for taking pre-recorded evidence were being considered, with “the aim of the aim of avoiding children having to endure the stress and anxiety of giving evidence in the formal court environment, while maintaining the rights of accused persons”.

He added: “This work is on-going and there will be a public consultation before any legislative proposals are made.”

A spokesman for the SCTS said a working group was examining a “fundamental redesign” of the approach for children and vulnerable witnesses in giving evidence. This includes both lessons from the Barnahus model and pilots in England of the “Full Pigot” system, which puts procedures in place for pre-recorded cross-examinations.

He said: “In either case, there’s a number of complex issues to address, including not just the changes to criminal law and procedure that will be required, but also the resources, training, equipment and facilities that would be needed to make the changes work in practice.

“In the case of the Barnahus model, it would need to bring together health, social work, police and Crown services in a new collaborative venture.

“SCTS’s role so far has been to promote and facilitate the exploration of these options, and it will continue to do so.”

For Glasgow, the case for a radical – and urgent overhaul of the system - is clear. She said the cost of having generations of children being traumatised by an “abusive” system was a “totally untenable position”.

She said: “We know abusers are very skilled in the way they silence children, but we have also had a system that has silenced children.

“Scotland is not delivering justice for those children.”