Victim's widow slams courts system

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Helen Newlove told MPs that the already distressed families of victims are forgotten in the daunting legal system when they get to court to try and get justice.

She told the Home Affairs Committee on Policing in the 21st Century: "As victims in court we want more help and respect."

She added: "You go in the court with all the emotions and then you are fighting for a seat, the press have a box, the legal people have a box but there is no respect for the families. You do not know who you are sitting next to. I think it's utterly disgraceful because you think that the courts are for you, that they are your safety net."

Mrs Newlove, who saw her husband, 47, kicked to death by a gang of teenagers, also called for higher visibility policing in the battle against Britain's yob culture.

She revealed that she and her daughters - Zoe, 18, Danielle, 15, and Amy, 14 - have moved away from their family home in Warrington, Cheshire, because they struggled to cope with flashbacks of the murder. Mr Newlove was left dying outside. She goes back to the area and there is noticeable policing, she said.

But Mrs Newlove added: "There is visibility, but it is a case of the horse has already bolted. The children (yobs) see the police, they run off, come back and it has got steadily worse for three or four years."

She argued against the closure of local police stations.

Mrs Newlove told MPs: "You cannot have a central police station with people bogged down with paperwork. You have to have somebody in the community."

She is also calling for a stronger DNA database and "punishment to fit the crime".