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Commissioner calls for changes in way witnesses are handled by judicial system as parents recover from 'shocking' treatment

Britain's courts will see sweeping changes in favour of the victims of serious crime in the light of the Milly Dowler murder trial, the victims' commissioner has vowed.

Louise Casey said she will put forward a report to the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke within the next two weeks which will conclude that the "shocking" treatment of the Dowler family during the trial of their daughter's murderer is just part of a wider picture that has seen dozens of relatives devastated by experiences with the justice system.

Casey, the commissioner for victims and witnesses, said: "My report's recommendations for change will be taken seriously and acted upon at the highest levels." She welcomed yesterday's comments from Mark Rowley, the chief constable of Surrey police, who said he was "shocked" by the way Milly's family were cross-examined and their personal lives thrown into the spotlight during the trial of serial killer Levi Bellfield, who was jailed for life on Thursday at the Old Bailey.

Rowley also called for changes in the way the courts treated witnesses and said it was a "most bizarre and distressing coincidence" that the Dowler family had their privacy "destroyed" at the same time as celebrities were granted super-injunctions to protect details of their personal lives. "Here is someone who doesn't want celebrity, whose daughter has been killed, but is being vilified and humiliated. It is completely incongruous and unnecessary."

He said that victims and witnesses were the "lifeblood" of the justice system. "Unless we treat them carefully and thoughtfully, fundamentally it undermines the system in the long term. Somehow we need to find a different way into the system that looks at, with equal vigour: how can we care for the victims and witnesses in these cases, while testing the evidence, and how do we protect privacy as well?

"I'm not saying, 'Never go personal,' but if you go personal then, for goodness sake, think about the dignity of the people involved. There needs to be stronger practice advice so judges are not worried about appeal by restricting defence questioning."

The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, said the Bellfield trial had raised "fundamental questions" about the treatment of witnesses in the courtroom.

Casey said she welcomed the comments of both Starmer and Rowley. "I very much hope that the shock and anger that many people feel about the lack of dignity, respect and protection that the Criminal Justice System afforded to the Dowlers will mean that, when my report into the treatment of those bereaved by murder, manslaughter and culpable road death is published in the next couple of weeks, its recommendations for change will be taken seriously and acted upon at the highest level," she said yesterday.

Insiders said Casey had been moved by the families she had met over the past year and shocked by some of their experiences, and was in no mood to accept compromises on her recommendations.

Both Milly's parents had broken down in court after being cross-examined by a defence trying to prove she was unhappy and alienated from her family. But many legal experts are wary of change restricting every person's right to a full and vigorous defence.

John Cooper, QC, an elected member of the Bar Council and visiting Professor of Law at Cardiff University, defended the rigour of British justice system: "We should not let Levi Bellfield hijack the criminal justice system. The system and the process works well, day in day out, up and down the country. It is there to ensure there are no miscarriages of justice and the prosecution case is tested in accordance with the defendant's instructions, whether those instructions are palatable or not.

"It is important in any democratic society for a defendant's case, however repulsive it may seem, to be put at trial to be accepted or, as was in this case, rejected by a jury."

Mark Leech, editor of the national prisoners' newspaper ConVerse, said calls for reform were unnecessary: "The judge already acts as a safeguard to unnecessary and intrusive questioning which falls outside what is legitimate to the defence."

• Milly Dowler
• Judiciary
• UK criminal justice
• Crime

Milly' Dowler's father says family feels like it has been put on trial and the questioning of his wife was 'cruel and inhuman'

They waited nine years for justice for their "happy and vivacious" daughter Milly. But when it came, her family said it shouldn't have come at such a high price.

One by one, each member of Milly Dowler's family stood outside the Old Bailey after their daughter's killer was given a second whole-life sentence, to launch a scathing attack on the justice system that has left them feeling angry and let down.

They were also critical of initial Surrey police investigation during which chances were missed to catch Levi Bellfield, who went on to murder two more victims.

Milly's father, Robert, 59, said: "The pain and agony that we have endured as a family since 21 March 2002 has been compounded by the devastating effects of this trial."

Describing it as a "truly mental scarring experience on an unimaginable scale", and the questioning of his wife as "particularly cruel and inhuman" he said they felt as if it had been they who had been on trial.

He said: "We despair of a justice system that is so loaded in favour of the perpetrator of the crime. It has often appeared as almost incidental that this is a trial concerning the murder of our daughter."

Her mother, Sally, described the four-week trial as an "awful experience" in which her "happy vivacious, fun-loving girl" had been defamed.

She said: "Our family life has been scrutinised and laid open for everyone to inspect and comment upon. We have had to lose our right to privacy and sit through day after harrowing day of the trial in order to get a man convicted of a brutal murder."

She added: "The length the system goes to protect his human rights seems so unfair compared to what we as a family have had to endure.

I hope whilst he is in prison he is treated with the same brutality he dealt out to his victims and that his life is a living hell."

The experience of the Dowler family has raised "fundamental questions" about the treatment of victims and witnesses in the courts system, according to Keir Starmer the director of public prosecutions.

Both Robert, an IT management consultant, and his wife, a teacher, broke down while giving evidence after forensic questioning of their lives by the defence and suggestions that Milly may have run away because she was unhappy. Her father also had an additional ordeal as details of his sexual proclivities were examined after it emerged Milly had found a pornographic magazine belonging to him and had felt let down because of it. This led to police considering Dowler as a suspect – the first of 54 checked out by Surrey police over the nine years since Milly's death.

Milly's sister, Gemma, 25, said: "I can honestly say that the day my mother and father were questioned by the defence QC was the worst day of my life. It is hard to believe, but it was worse than when I heard the news that the remains were that of my sister Milly."

In a poignant account of how the family had tried to move forward in the years since "the best sister anyone could ask for" was murdered, she spoke of how they had managed good days.

"Sadly it is those good days when we realise that there is somebody missing and then I will spend the next day feeling guilty for enjoying myself."

She went on: "It had taken me a long time to get to some kind of normal life for a 25-year-old but I felt I was getting there; however now I feel like all my hard work has been undone."

Louise Casey, the commissioner for victims and witnesses, has said the Dowlers were far from an isolated case and victims and witnesses were sometimes "treated as if they were an inconvenience in some legal game being played out in the court room".

She said: "We can't let this continue."

Roger Coe-Salazar, the CPS chief crown prosecutor in the south-east, added that "no amount of general foresight can ever prepare someone for" certain aspects of the trial process, such as the cross-examination which Milly's family found "extremely distressing".

But he said that while prosecutors objected to the questioning by Bellfield's defence team "wherever we legitimately could", the defendant must always be able to "advance his defence before a jury".

• Milly Dowler
• Crime
• UK criminal justice

Mara Hvistendahl's wish to highlight the scourge of prenatal sex selection in Asia (Lost girls: sex selection and the rise of Generation XY, 17 June) is laudable, but her book's claim that UNFPA, the UN Population Fund, has failed to address the problem is incorrect. On the contrary, UNFPA has been raising alarms about this odious practice for more than 20 years.

In China, UNFPA called attention to the skewed sex ratio at birth when it first became apparent in the 1990 census; our advocacy helped persuade the government to outlaw sex selection in 1994. Since then, the Fund has sponsored an ongoing series of influential forums and studies on the causes and likely consequences of sex selection in China and other countries, including some of the research Ms Hvistendahl cites in her book. And in India, UNFPA has long been a prominent leader in advocating against sex selection and other practices that discriminate against girls and women.

Safiye Çagar

UNFPA

• During Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Britain, David Cameron must fulfil his government's commitment to placing human rights at the "irreducible core" of foreign policy. The recent detention of Ai Weiwei, the ongoing military crackdown at Kirti Monastery in Tibet and the continued detention of numerous Uighur dissidents are just a few examples of the oppressive nature of Mr Wen's administration. Mr Cameron has been outspoken in support of demonstrators involved in the Arab spring; he must now show support for those opposing the policies of the Chinese Communist party regime.

Shao Jiang 1989 Beijing massacre survivor

Stephen Ng Director, Chinese Solidarity Campaign

Lucy Jin Co-ordinator, Federation for a Democratic China

Ze Xia Director, Friends of Tiananmen Mothers

Kate Saunders Communications director, International Campaign for Tibet

Pema Yoko National Co-ordinator, Students for a Free Tibet

Pempa Tsering Chairman, Tibetan Community in Britain

Karma Chura-Tsang Director, Tibetan Youth UK

Philippa Carrick CEO, Tibet Society

Enver Tohti Director, Uighur UK Association

• China
• Population
• India
• United Nations
• Gender
• Human rights