If I'm a victim of a crime and it's going to court..

[purpleme12]

Do I need to sort my own solicitor?
And pay for it?
Who sorts this?

The Crown Prosecution Service do. You don't have to do anything or pay anything

Thank you. Feel so in the dark.

Do they also do that for him as well or does he have to sort his own and pay for his own?

Why don't you ask the police dealing with it?

For him? You mean who did the crime?? Then he needs a solicitor to defend himself.

Depends how much he earns he might get legal aid ,but would be able to find his own.solicitor( if they accept legal aid)to represent him.

Victim care should be supporting you.
Can you give brief context of crime? Other support varies depending on what it was.

If you’re the victim you’re classed as a witness usually. Haven’t witness care/victim support been in touch?

Magistrate here.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will bring the case and you will be a prosecution witness (as the victim). The CPS prosecutor will be in court and act to bring the case and prove it, in the same way that a defence solicitor will try to disprove it.

In terms of the defendent, he may choose to represent himself (Ie not have a solicitor). Or he may be eligible for legal aid and have the fees paid for a solicitor, if he is not eligible for legal aid he will either have to pay for his own solicitor or represent himself.

If he represents himself, ie does not have a solicitor, and pleads not guilty then the court should make what is called a section 36 direction which means he will
be unable to question you and your evidence himself during the trial. The court will appoint (and pay for) a solicitor to question you on his behalf, but that is all they will pay for unless he is eligible for legal aid. The section 36 direction is intended to avoid any intimidation during your evidence and to achieve best evidence for the case.

i hope that helps.

This has been ongoing for almost 2 years although the incident it's primarily going to court for was a couple of months ago.
In the midst of it I was speaking to victim support each week which was very helpful at the time but then it eased off a bit (the harassment) so we stopped the calls.
The harassment has never actually stopped though.
I just felt like we'd have been saying the same thing each week in the end.
Is witness care different to victim support?
Should victim support or witness care be in touch with me then now we know it's going to court?

@JustanotherJP thank you

I would chase them up OP. I'm sure there are some great people who do this work who really take care of victims but unfortunately that wasn't my experience and I was only ever contacted when they wanted something from me. My assailant ultimately decided to plead guilty meaning I didn't need to give evidence, which I was pleased about of course. But the police didn't even bother to tell me when he was in court for sentencing. I found out because a friend saw it in the local paper and phoned me to check I was ok.
I hope I am never a victim of crime again, but if I am I will be far more proactive and demand updates even if I am making a nuisance of myself, because I was basically ignored most of the time and once they had their result neither my liason officer or victim "support" ever contacted me again. Not even to check if I was aware aware of the verdict. I'd call them with your questions if I were you.

I know he's plead not guilty.
I don't want to go down this route. I don't know what else to do. I don't want retrospective justice. I just want it to stop. And it's not stopping

I know none of my friends understand.
They don't get it.
See it as no big deal. Or just ignore them.
Or in sure certain people cos it's gone on for so long don't see it as a big deal anymore.
But I believe it they were in my position they wouldn't feel like this ☹️

@purpleme12 it is really not uncommon for someone to change their plea to guilty on the day of trial when they see that all the witnesses have turned up. So you may not have to go through a trial.

You can also request that a restraining order is made at court. This will mean there is another layer of protection. The court takes breaking a restraining order very seriously.

Yes that will be the outcome (the police said that's what they want from it) if we're successful.
He's not going to go to prison etc etc the best we can get from it is a restraining order .
Nothing else has worked so far so this might be my only option

This sounds very frightening, OP.
Is he stalking you?
Are the police aware of it?

No, harrassing. It's a neighbour.
Yes they are, they have been since the first incident.

I don't know if I can do it anyway.

If it’s not stopping you need to be keeping a record of every contact and also reporting it to the Police. It’s clearly not going to just stop which is why you need to see the court process through to the end. You should have been contacted by the witness service. The Police officer in the case should also have been keeping in contact with you. It’s important to do that in order to keep victims and witnesses on side.

What is the witness service and what do they do?

Is this something different to victim support?

I have talked to victim support in the past but not recently

I think it's because this isn't seen as a serious crime to everyone else

I found victim support useless .not returning calls etc then contacted me as person was going into court to ask me what I wanted re retraining order (they were pleading guilty so I didn't need to attend)I had seconds to decide and made bad choice. I wish I asked for indefinite restraint order rather than fixed term as son as time up the issues resurfaced.
Later same person different crime I asked for screens etc and a room so I did not have to see them.

At no time was my impact report read out .

You don't need a solicitor but you can ask to see round court etc.i found police most helpful.

You said victim support contacted you as he was going into court? So do they liaise with the police then?

The police person in charge is ok.
But sometimes I don't think he gets it emotionally.
Eg he doesn't get the impact of the constant reports to children's services on me. All he says is that anyone can make reports to them and kind of skims over it and says we can't prove they're malicious.

It was another officer who rang me to tell me he'd plead not guilty

Victim support are useless
you have to be very proactive if you want anything

if you get a restraining order check how long it’s for
you can towards the end of the order request via the courts a variation of the order to extend it or request to vary the order
if you feel that it’s not working ie no contact

if it’s a no contact without distance in the order ask what it means by no contact ideally you want some kind of distance in the order ie 100 meters and no contact

I emailed the judges chamber 😂 and the clerks were excellent in helping me get a variation of the original RO. Told me basically to write to the judge with my concerns

I had a hearing in the crown court and the judge was fabulous
RO was changed from no contact to include distance to prevent him coming within 100 meters of myself and my street until further notice - so basically no end date unless either myself or anyone else named in the order asks for a variation which is very unusual but highlight how serious the judge took his harassment and violence and this was a neighbor who because of the RO now included distance had no choice but to move from his council house or be evicted

It all seems so futile.
I wouldn't have don't this if it was stopping.
I don't understand why they can't just stop.