Twice the support for crime victims

L-R Debbie Sargison Victim Support services coordinator HB, Lydia Allan Victim support area manager Bay of Plenty Eastern , Kevin Tso Victim Support chief executive, George Massingham Prison Manager.

Victim Support helped almost double the number of Rotorua crime victims in December than it did the previous year.

The number of victims referred to Victim Support in the Rotorua region for December 2014 was 77, compared to 43 for December 2013, and was part of a 30 per cent nationwide increase in the use of the service.

Victim Support chief executive Kevin Tso said he could only speculate as to why the number of offences increased over the holiday period.

"The nature of the incidents vary. The big increase for December compared to last year is particularly around sexual violence, and in addition to that rape as well and also homicide matters.

"Typically the holiday period brings people together and bringing people together, not only in terms of issues that may occur due to relationships that may create issues, but during the Christmas holiday period, there are a lot more travellers for example and that relates to motor vehicle accidents, particularly fatal ones."

Mr Tso said he expected the figures to decrease by the end of the holiday period. "Even though these figures show up in December they may be for incidents that happened a whole ago so it is ongoing support.

"The overall national trend, I would anticipate activity in some areas to drop off a bit after the holiday period, I would expect it to go down."

Mr Tso said all areas experienced an increase in victims over the holidays. "The trends that occurred in December are fairly much across the board in the North Island and the main urban areas of the South Island."

Victim Support is a charitable trust that provides support, information, financial assistance, referral to other support services and advocacy for victims' rights.

-Victim Support operates out of Rotorua Police Station, 1190 Fenton St. Call (07) 349 9548.