Princess Anne visits Glasgow victim of crime support group

Princess Anne met staff and volunteers at the national office of Victim Support Scotland (VSS) and was honoured with the unveiling of a plaque to mark her tour of the group's new office in the city centre.

VSS are the leading charity dedicated to helping people affected by crime across Scotland.

And Chief Executive Kate Wallace said it was an "honour" to welcome the princess, who last visited more than four years ago when the independent charity worked out of their old office.

Speaking to the Glasgow Times, Kate said: “As soon as she walked in, she commented it was a lot brighter in here, she knew it wasn’t the same office.

Princess Anne met with volunteers Mark, Lou and Louise (Image: Julie Broadfoot for Victim Support Scotland)

The Princess got a chance to see the remote suites which are used for speaking with the courts (Image: Julie Broadfoot for Victim Support Scotland)

“The Princess Royal was very engaged. She is really informed about the issues faced by people affected by crime.

"The visit went really well, I’m really pleased and proud to showcase the services offered by Victim Support Scotland.”

The Princess is the president of the support body and met with volunteers and staff to find out more about the work they do day-to-day.

The late Queen’s daughter was given a tour of the new site alongside having lunch and a look at the remote suites VSS use to communicate with courts across the country.

A plaque for the Princess was unveiled (Image: Julie Broadfoot for Victim Support Scotland)

Kate Wallace said the group were honoured to welcome the princess (Image: Julie Broadfoot for Victim Support Scotland)

Volunteer Lou Mitchell, who helps in the community support side of the charity, admitted her chat with the Princess took an unusual turn.

She said: “It was so lovely, she was really down to earth.

“We started talking about dogs because I used to work with dogs.

“We spoke about dogs for most of the conversation.”

Mark Bradford, another volunteer who met with the Princess Royal, explained the conversation was really easy.

He added: “She’s really super.

“She asked me how I got into volunteering with Victim Support in the first place, and asked what we did outside of the volunteering.”

Kate continued: “Especially because she is so interested in it, and takes so much time and interest in everybody, she’ll ask people about themselves, it does make a big difference.”

“It does give everybody a boost.

“She is aware of a lot of the issues that there are for victims of crime.”

Every year VSS’s 500 volunteers help around 50,000 people in local communities and courts throughout Scotland.

And Kate hopes the Princess’s trip will shine a light on their service and encourage anyone who has witnessed or become a victim of crime to reach out to them.

She finished: “We provide emotional and practical support to victims of any type of crime in Scotland.

“It doesn’t matter what the crime is, and it can be a recent crime or it can be something that happened quite some time ago, it doesn’t matter.

“Anything from assault, anti-social behaviour through to sexual crime and we support families bereaved by murder and culpable homicide.

“And that really means working with victims to try and improve whatever areas of their life they need help with.”