Karen
Victims of violent crime sometimes need counselling to deal with the trauma (posed by model)
One afternoon, shortly before Christmas, Karen was walking through the wooded pathway leading back to her house, when she was attacked by a man who lived nearby. Having been at first knocked unconscious, pinned to the ground and strangled, Karen eventually managed to get free of her attacker and escape.
She immediately reported to the police and the man was quickly arrested and taken into custody. Due to the nature of the crime, his motives and the evidence found, he was initially charge with sexual assault but this was downgraded by the Crown Prosecution Service and he was eventually given a community sentence, and put on probation under a restraining order.
Karen said: “I ended up taking sleeping tablets and having counselling. Initially I got it through my work but that’s when Wendy from Victim Support came round to see me. Within days of the attack, Victim Support had phoned me up and we chatted about what happened and what support I wanted.
“The counselling at work was good but it wasn’t specifically for victims so it was good to have someone there who understood and had obviously helped other people through the same kind of thing. It was really valuable to talk to someone who understood the shock and how I felt let down by the CPS. Having someone who could say with authority, ‘look you will get better, it will stop being so scary’ was helpful. They explained what sort of trauma I could expect but that it was normal and not to feel scared by the trauma and to give myself time to get over it.”