DOMESTIC abuse victims are facing court delays of nearly seven months due to the huge backlog of cases, according to support groups.

The Evening Times revealed on Monday that there were more than 1300 domestic abuse cases waiting to go to trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Court bosses have added an extra court each Friday and an additional daily trial court is planned next month to deal with the pile-up.

But advocacy chiefs say there were also plans for extra court resources in November - but they have been "taken off the table".

Now they are calling for a long-term solution.

It was thought the change in plans was down to a roof fault at Glasgow High Court, which closed one of the six courtrooms to allow for repairs to ceiling plasterwork.

It meant some business had to be temporarily moved to Glasgow Sheriff Court. However, Scottish Courts said it had no impact on summary business.

They said they had looked into setting up additional domestic abuse courts in November but it was decided extra resources would only be given in October.

When the flagship court was set up in 2004, the aim was to fast-track domestic abuse cases in eight weeks.

Mhairi McGowan, head of advocacy group Assist, said the lack of action is resulting in abuse victims waiting more than six months - more than three times as long as expected - for their case to be heard.

She said: "We welcome the plans to provide extra court resources for domestic abuse cases this month and in October. But there were plans for an extra court in November, too, and those plans have now been taken off the table.

"This means people could be waiting up to 29 weeks - when the aim of the Domestic Abuse Court was to fast track cases in eight weeks.

"We need to do as much as we can to get through the backlog of cases and make sure cases are dealt with promptly.

"The issue is, if we are only putting on extra trials in October each year, we are just putting a sticking plaster over the problem."

Ms McGowan said cases needed to be "prioritised" because of their nature.

She said: "Police Scotland and the Crown Office are dealing with domestic abuse appropriately, however, Scottish Courts also need to put additional resources in and understand why these cases need to be prioritised."

Susan Jack, training and development worker at Glasgow Women's Aid, said the system was "ill equipped" to deal with the number of cases.

She said: "For the women involved the increase in waiting times adds to the stress of an already very stressful situation."

"A spokesman from the Scottish Courts Service said they were working on getting the waiting times down.

He said: "We are committed to reducing waiting time for domestic abuse cases and are continuing to look at how we can programme business to reduce the delay periods. "

rachel.loxton@eveningtimes.co.uk