Anti-social behaviour victims 'to get legal funding' for private prosecutions

Victims of anti-social behaviour ignored by the authorities could be given legal funding for private court actions against their tormentors, it was revealed today.

Under a proposed Home Office scheme, families who are "passed from pillar to post" like bullied mother Fiona Pilkington would be given the money so they could take out court injunctions.

It would be a "last resort" for victims who had nowhere else to turn. The police forces and councils which failed to help them would then be forced to pick up the bill.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has attacked police failures in the Pilkington case as "ludicrous" and warned of a "mindset" that led some officers to ignore families besieged by louts.

The inquest into the deaths of Ms Pilkington and her daughter Francecca, from Barwell, Leicestershire, heard the family endured more than a decade of abuse from a gang .

A police officer told the hearing that dealing with "low level" anti-social behaviour was the responsibility of town halls - prompting a furious response from ministers.

Mr Johnson has made anti-social behaviour a priority after admitting Government efforts on the issue had stalled in recent years.

Under the new proposals - published in the Government's policing White Paper - the money would become available to repeat victims if police and town halls fail to respond within target times.

The victims would hand over evidence of the authorities' failures to an appointed lawyer or one of the Government's new regional victims' champions, who would authorise a pay-out.

The White Paper states: "Repeat victims, on producing appropriate evidence of incidents and a lack of action over a specified period of time... could be automatically entitled to legal support in order to pursue an appropriate remedy against the offender, such as an injunction from the courts."

The funding would then be "recharged to the relevant local agency", the document states.

Officials stressed the measures would be used only in exceptional cases. They said victims should expect police and councils to respond in the right way to reports of anti-social behaviour "first time".

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to supporting victims of anti-social behaviour and we are determined that all local agencies give people all the support they need when they make a complaint.

"Our objective is to ensure that we get it right first time for victims.

"We are consulting on remedies that could prove useful in the rare instances where people feel they are not receiving the service to which they are entitled."

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: "What we actually need is tough police action to deal with anti-social behaviour.

"People who terrorise neighbourhoods need to be properly punished. How can the public have faith in the criminal justice system if they have to deal with these things themselves?"

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, said: "The Pilkington case wasn't about so-called low- level anti-social behaviour. It was about persistent crime that should have led to arrests and charges.

"Victims shouldn't have to bring their own prosecutions. The police and other authorities have positive legal obligations under the Human Rights Act to protect people from crime.

"As for this bright new idea of a legal fees fund - if the Government hadn't worked so hard at dismantling legal aid, victims wouldn't have to go begging to the Home Office or a Victims' Champion for access to justice."