MEREDITH KERCHER

You may have seen newspaper reports today about the British student Meredith Kercher who was murdered in Italy last November.
I worked hard on getting compensation for her family as this article in the "Guardian" on 21 April 2008 shows.

Kercher family in compensation limbo

Haroon Siddique
guardian.co.uk,
Monday April 21 2008 16.00 BST

The family of the murdered British exchange student Meredith Kercher may be denied compensation because Italy has not implemented an EU-wide scheme to help victims of violent crime, it was revealed today.

Kercher, 21, was found dead last November in the house she shared in Perugia.
In April 2004, the EU introduced a system "to facilitate access to compensation in cases where the crime was committed in a member state other than that of the victim's residence". All states were due to implement the directive by January 1 2006.

The UK has done so, but Italy and at least one other EU country have not, and the London MEP Mary Honeyball has tabled a question in the European parliament asking what can be done. The question is expected to be heard next month.

Meredith's family, who live in Croydon, have not received any compensation. "It all seems grossly unfair," Honeyball said. "They have been through such a lot. If it happened the other way round, an Italian victim would get compensation.

"The thing the EU has got to get to grips with is although there are timetables for disposition, it doesn't always happen."

Jan Downs, the deputy manager of Victim Support Croydon, alerted Honeyball to the Kerchers' case.

"It's a difficult time for them," Downs said. "They've got the added complication that the crime happened abroad and it's a different legal system. They've got all that to deal with apart from the emotional issues."

The European commission can enforce a directive where a member state fails to comply.
In the UK, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority pays cash to victims of violent crime in England, Scotland and Wales, whether they are British or from elsewhere in the EU. It aims to pay compensation within nine months, although in complex cases it can take longer.

An American student, Amanda Knox, 20, her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, and an Ivorian, Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, are being held on suspicion of Kercher's sexual assault and murder.