CAMPAIGNERS are urging all parties to back a Nordic model which has the potential to “revolutionise” children’s experiences of justice in Scotland.
The SNP manifesto contained a pledge to ensure every child victim or witness of crime will have access to a safe space based on the Barnahus model, which has been adopted by countries including Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Greenland and Denmark.
A pilot for the first dedicated centre of its kind is expected to open later this year in East Renfrewshire, following a £1.5 million grant from the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Mary Glasgow, chief executive of charity Children 1st, which has led the campaign for a Barnahus for Scotland, told the Sunday National the commitment to roll it out was “hugely exciting” and the first of its kind in the UK.
She said: “We have seen Barnahus develop in different jurisdictions in a number of countries across Europe.
“We know there are discussions and work and conversations going on in Northern Ireland and England – this is the first full commitment to say that Barnahus will be rolled out in a Parliamentary term – it is really significant.
“We are calling on all political parties to really get behind it and recognise it has the potential to revolutionise children’s experience of justice by making sure that every child victim and every child witness can go to a Barnahus rather than court by the next parliamentary term.
“We have seen the Liberal Democrats now coming out and putting it in their manifesto as has the SNP and we would love to get cross-party support for this – it would be amazing.”
There has long been concern over young people having to go through a justice system designed for adults.
Lengthy delays, the experience of having to go to court and having little access to support has meant some children can be left as traumatised by the court process as the crime they suffered.
In 1998, Iceland developed the Barnahus – or children’s house – as a centre where children can be interviewed by specially trained police officers, have medical examinations and receive sessions in the same place.
UN international child rights expert Bragi Guobrandsson, who spearheaded the Barnahus model in Iceland, has joined the group which is working to establish Scotland’s first “Child’s House for Healing”.
It will support up to 200 children and young people from across the West of Scotland.
Glasgow said: “We are working with colleagues and police and social work around supporting those children through that journey.
“This is all about those children who have told us heartbreaking stories for decades of feeling they weren’t believed or really explicitly saying to us the process they had to go through to try and get protection and care and justice was worse than the abuse.
“I find it difficult to express what a significant difference this will make to some of the most vulnerable, but also some of the most courageous children in Scotland.”
One case highlighted by Children 1st is that of Sonia, who had just turned 17 when she reported to police she had been raped by her boyfriend. As she was over 16 years old, she was treated as an adult.
But she said: “I was still a wee girl. This was like a grown man and a big grown man in a police uniform and I was like, I can’t say these words to him, he’ll be like, I don’t know.
“I don’t think he meant to come across that way but when you see the police you go, a bit on edge, and even if you’ve done nothing wrong you still think, ‘oh God why are they here?’.”
When the accused was charged, Sonia experienced intimidation as people took “sides” on who was telling the truth, which meant she could not attend all of her classes and led to her being unable to attend university.
She was overwhelmed by the wait for the case to come to court and tried to retract her statement – but was told by police she could not because it was a “domestic”.
She found the cross-examination in court harrowing, saying: “I felt like I was a liar until he was proven guilty.”
The charity said: “It is sad to note that having reflected on this experience, Sonia feels her life would have been better if she had not reported the rape, rather than if she had not been raped.”
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