Nottinghamshire Probation Trust's Victim Contact Team provide a service to victims and families affected by serious crimes.
The Probation Service has a duty to contact the Victims of violent and sexual offenders who have been sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 12 months or more.
In addition the Probation Service is required to contact victims of offenders who receive a Hospital Order with or without restrictions. The offences that fall within the definition of "sexual or violent offences" includes murder and rape, assault, causing death by dangerous driving, robbery and indecent assault.
Victims can be the direct victim of the crime or parents, carers, partners, children, dependents and others with a close personal relationship to the victim.
How it works
Probation's Victim Liaison Officers must contact victims within 8 weeks of sentence. The purpose is to allow victims to understand the sentence passed and receive information about key developments during an offender’s sentence. We also enable victims to make representations about release and the restrictions that the offender might be subject to on release from prison.
Contact is by letter initially, followed up in most cases by a phone call, and a home visit. Victim Contact can stay in touch with victims all the way through the offender’s sentence and after release, if that is what they want.
The Probation Victim Contact Team has strong links with much of the local Criminal Justice System. Sharing information across agencies can enable us all to improve our response to victims.
Victim Contact staff do not have any involvement with the offenders; but liase with the people who manage the offenders, to make sure that the victims’ views are being taken on board . For example, Victim Contact staff attend Multi Agency Public Protection (MAPP) meetings, to ensure victims’ issues are taken into account.
The team covers the whole of Nottinghamshire County and Nottingham City and are based at our Derby Road Office. They can be contacted on 0115 9082970.
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