A woman whose sister was killed by her husband in an axe attack has called for further measures to be added to Scottish Government legislation for victims of crime.
Helen Richardson spoke at the Labour Party conference in Inverness about her experiences of the criminal justice system following her sister's death in February 2010.
She was joined by former principal advocate depute Brian McConnachie, who agreed there was "a long way to go" to improve the treatment of victims.
The Scottish Government has brought forward a Victims and Witnesses Bill, but Labour's justice spokesman Lewis Macdonald said there are a number of measures missing from the proposed laws.
Describing her experiences, Ms Richardson told delegates her family was forced to "clean up" her sister's home following her death.
"We were left to repair and remove substantial blood stains within the property," she said.
"This is neither fair or just."
She said her family's voice had been denied the chance to be heard in court because their impact statement was not read out.
Ms Richardson continued: "Having personally found the justice system disjointed, better communication is required between the various agencies.
"A post of a victim's commissioner should be created who can promote and safeguard the rights of victims, and could be instrumental in improving co-ordination and integration between organisations.
"Some of the comments made to me by officials were crassly insensitive and displayed a distinct air of condescension."
Examples of this included being told: "You seem very well informed for a layperson".
Ms Richardson also called for the introduction of domestic homicide reviews to allow courts to take all the circumstances of a victims situation into account in domestic cases.
Mr McConnachie, who is now a senior defence counsel and chair of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association in Scotland, said the "information flow" needed to be improved for victims.
He questioned whether "current Government policy to issue more and more police fines" was serving victims and complainers well.
Mr McConnachie also questioned the treatment of families.
"I do think at times there is undue pressure put on families particularly in murder situations," he said.
Mr Macdonald said: "We have heard powerful testimony today about what is not in the Victims' and Witnesses' Bill.
"There is no independent victims' commissioner to champion their interests.
"There is nothing about a case companion, to help victims and their families navigate their way among the many different parts of the justice system.
He said Labour would challenge SNP ministers on these issues.
Mr Macdonald also announced plans for a Safer Streets Network to support communities blighted by crime and anti-social behaviour.
"We will listen to local people, working through local elected councillors, MPs and MSPs to identify the key issues.
We will organise campaigns at a local level.
"And we will bring together local campaigners to help make policy at a national level."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article