THE mother of Glasgow murder victim Moira Jones has praised a new “long awaited and much needed” service to support families bereaved by violent crime.

Bea Jones, whose daughter was murdered in Queen’s Park in Glasgow in 2008, said the formal launch was an emotional day as everything she has done has been in her daughter’s name.

Lynn Burns, whose son Sam Johnston died aged 22 after being stabbed at a party in Saltcoats, North Ayrshire in 2013, believes if she had had a dedicated support worker – a key feature of the new service – it would have helped her “start to heal sooner”.

The support worker will assist with practical tasks such as going to court, accessing specialist services including counselling, arranging funerals, and handling media and finances.

READ MORE: £1.2m service to help families who have lost loved ones to murder

Victim Support Scotland (VSS) first made the new Support for Families Bereaved by Crime service available in April, restricted to relatives of those who died after that date, but has now been extended to cover past victims of murder and culpable homicide.

The Moira Fund, set up by Ms Jones to help families like hers following her daughter’s murder, criticised gaps in service provision in a report to the Scottish Government in a campaign for the new service.

Both she and Mrs Burns praised Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf for listening and taking action.

Ms Jones said the new service is “hugely important”, adding: “It’s been long-awaited and much-needed, and all the signs are it’s going to do a very good job.”

She said prior to the introduction of the dedicated workers there were lots of gaps where people were “struggling to cope by themselves”.

READ MORE: Moira Jones remembered in touching tribute at 10th anniversary of her murder

Following her daughter’s murder, she “just accepted everything as it was, which was hell”, later realising the need for a dedicated support worker.

“You don’t know what’s happening, you’re just shocked, traumatised,” she said.

“So, now, hopefully they will have the guidance of someone there for them, explaining things, picking up the phone for them to make appointments, saving them from having to tell their story over and over, speaking to a faceless authority over the phone.”

She added: “It’s an emotional day for us...Everything we’ve done has been done in Moira’s name and that makes it very very emotional.”

Mrs Burns said: “I continuously felt as if I was fighting from the very day Sam died. It felt as everything was a fight and as if there was no-one there for us.

“There were all these agencies that were doing their jobs professionally and well, but there was actually no-one there just to kind of say to us, ‘we’ve got this’.

“That process prevented me from starting to grieve for Sam for such a long time.”

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She added: “It would have been such as relief and reassurance to have someone that we knew was there for us.

“I think it would have helped me start to heal sooner.”

Mr Yousaf believes the service, backed by £1.2million of Scottish Government funding, will address some of the gaps highlighted and reduce some of the trauma experienced by the families.

Having spoken with Ms Jones, Mrs Burns and other families of murder victims, he said: “The one thing they’ve all said is ‘I wish this service was around when we faced the trauma that we did’, so I’m very confident and very hopeful about the fact that this service will make a massive difference.”

Victim Support Scotland chief executive Kate Wallace said that involving those who have lived through traumatic experiences have been “crucial” in developing the service.