Compensation to crime victims almost trebles for first three months

THE compensation paid to crime victims in the first three months of this year has almost trebled compared to the same period in 2004, figures have revealed.

Until April 7, the Criminal Inquiry Compensation Tribunal had made 19 awards totalling €673,148.77. In the same period last year, the tribunal made 23 awards, but only to the value of €264,483.11.

The total pay-out in 2004 was €2,038,819 a considerable decrease on the 2003 figure of €3,239,658.