Dowler trial prompts questions over victim support

DPP Keir Starmer QC said the murder case had raised “some fundamental questions about the treatment of victims and witnesses in the court process.

“Those questions require answers, and we will be contributing to the review by the Ministry of Justice into all aspects of victims support.”

Sally Dowler, Milly’s mother, said after the trial – in which she and her husband were subjected to thorough cross-examination by the defence team of murderer Levi Bellfield – that it had been “a truly awful experience”.

Surrey Police Chief Constable Mark Rowley, whose force apologised for missed opportunities that could have led to Levi Bellfield’s arrest, also joined the voices critical of the Dowler family’s ordeal in court.

This trial has raised some fundamental questions about the treatment of victims and witnesses. DPP Keir Starmer QC

He described the extent to which trial victims and witnesses were deprived of dignity and care as “startling”.

“They’re the lifeblood of the system, and unless we treat them carefully and thoughtfully, fundamentally it undermines the system in the long term,” he told BBC Radio.

In an article in The Times, Chief Constable Rowley called for a process that enabled “the proper testing of witnesses without destroying them in public”.

Read more on the Milly Dowler murder trial and its aftermath

Speaking on Channel 4 News after the end of the trial, Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses Louise Casey said the case had shined a light on the fact that victims and witnesses do not enjoy the same rights as offenders”

“When people talk about a fair trial, they’re talking about a fair trial to the defendant.”

“But we have to ask ourselves, if a family come out of a courtroom in the way this family have, (…) how am I, as the Victims Commissioner, going to persuade other people to give evidence, to report crime?”

She continued: “Why, for example, is a rich footballer able to get a super-injunction to silence whilst meanwhile, back in the Old Bailey, this family’s private life is destroyed?”

Levi Bellfield was given a second whole-life sentence for the murder of Milly Dowler. He was already serving a whole-life term for the murders of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell.