Between 50-70 UK citizens are murdered abroad each year. At any one time, the Lucie Blackman Trust is trying to find 20-30 missing UK citizens. Since the disappearance of Lucie Blackman in Japan in 2000, the LBT has assisted the families of missing relatives and has established Missing Abroad to provide unique expertise, practical help, advice and support.
Missing Abroad operations manager Matt Searle has commissioned the opening of a dedicated TV suite at the Trust's HQ in the Isle of Wight. "For families whose relatives are missing or murdered overseas, the process of making a victim impact statement can be very traumatic," he explains. "Often they have to go overseas to do it, or into an impersonal police station. Our new studio will enable them to go through this difficult process and record their statement on video in relatively benign conditions."
Searle reports that he "stumbled upon" the Roland VR-5 at the recent BVE show in London, and went on to order a unit from Pro Active UK Ltd. "I thought wow! I was sold on the spot. It is the perfect device for what we are doing, in a compact all-in-one package.
"A Missing Persons Appeal can be a logistical nightmare to set up. Now we will be able to get the family into the studio to deliver a press conference which will be recorded on the VR-5 and streamed live to press outlets all over the world. Equally easily we can email a complete video file. Critically, we can use the unit to record statements which can be used in court. Because the VR-5 offers a picture-in-picture facility, you can clearly see that the video evidence has not been tampered with."
(Jim Evans)
