My partner has been praised by the police for helping put a criminal behind bars.

She had a go, like the good citizen that she is, and the mean streets of Royal Tunbridge Wells are now just that little bit safer.

Except she has now become a victim of crime, which in a way is timely because both the European Commission and the UK government have announced plans to focus more on people like her.

And there are plenty like her - an estimated 75 million people in the European Union become victims of crime every year.

But more on that later.

There are degrees of victimhood. My partner hasn’t suffered a physical injury or seen a loved one murdered. She hasn’t even lost any possessions.

She has simply begun starting at shadows and wondering about things that go bump in the night.

What happened? It was mid-afternoon one Sunday a little over three weeks ago that we spotted a burglar stealing lead from the roof of a nearby garage block. We confronted him, uneasily aware that he was holding a potentially lethal weapon - a length of lead.

We survived unscathed, however, and some time later that same afternoon we were able to identify him to the police. He kicked and struggled, demanding his rights, but was handcuffed and bundled into the back of a police van.

But not before he spat in the police officer’s face and vowed in graphic detail that, once he was released, he would come back for me.

We were driven to the police station (it’s astounding how many friends and acquaintances spot and wave to you when you are in a panda car) and I made a statement, but not my partner.

And then, still buoyed up with adrenalin, we continued to a friend’s house - our destination when we had left home almost three hours earlier.

My partner’s nervousness set in the next day. She is a commercial property solicitor, not Rambo, and the brush with violence and the look in the criminal’s eyes when he described what he was going to do to me had unsettled her.

She’ll get over it - in time.

In the meantime, even before we heard that the thief was out on bail, she became nervous being at home alone.

Voices in the street at night could be the thief and his mates, not just people late home from the pub.

And the person running up behind is just racing to catch a train - perhaps.

Surely there is something familiar about the young man at the bottom of the road. Why would he wear a cap pulled low over his brow? And why doesn’t he look up from his mobile phone as you approach?

He is just a typical young man - trainers, tracksuit bottom, Manchester United strip. He probably loves his mum and helps stray kittens across the road.

Except… Except nothing can be taken at face value any more.

She has become a victim of crime.

The European Commission earlier this year announced a package of measures to help people like her. These measures aim to put victims first by ensuring that they have a minimum level of rights, support and protection across the EU.

EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding said: ‘While our criminal justice systems focus on catching criminals, they sometimes end up neglecting the victims themselves. With millions of people suffering from crime each year, any citizen could become a victim. Victims of crime need respect, support, protection and to see that justice is served.

‘That is why I am putting victims at the heart of criminal justice in the EU by making sure they can rely on minimum rights and support anywhere in Europe.’

The proposed directive will ensure that victims in all 27 EU member states are treated with respect and that police, prosecutors and judges are trained in how properly to deal with them.

Victims are to get information on their rights and their case in a form that they can readily understand.

They can participate in proceedings, if they want to, and will be helped to attend the trial.

Vulnerable victims - such as children, those who have been raped and those with disabilities - will be properly protected, as will all victims while the police are investigating the crime and during court proceedings.

The UK government is also to provide new protections for the victims of crime.

The Conservatives have proposed imposing tougher sentences on criminals who refuse to meet their victims, even if the criminal has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

This is part of justice minister Crispin Blunt’s plans to give restorative justice a bigger role in the criminal justice system.

The Ministry of Justice has also announced plans to take up to £1m a year from the wages of prisoners who work outside the prison gates and use it to support victims of crime.

Victim Support charity chief executive Javed Khan said the money would be used ‘to deliver real, practical support for victims and communities’.

Former victims’ commissioner Louise Casey said: ‘I believe the principle of criminals contributing to the costs of support for victims should be extended, and am hopeful that the government will now extend the victims’ surcharge that judges and magistrates impose so that it applies to all offenders.’

Returning to my partner, she is to give a statement to the police later this week - some three and a half weeks after the incident. It was sufficiently traumatic that she can still remember what happened in detail - she thinks.

We have been told by the police to contact them immediately if we spot the thief hanging around.

We are unlikely to see him, one policeman assured us. ‘They are all cowards - don’t worry about it,’ he said.

So that’s alright, then.