Victoria May hit the road from Somerset to Kosovo almost 18 months ago and so far she has no intention to come back to UK. As a legal officer with the Special Prosecution Office she works every day on important criminal cases, providing EULEX prosecutors with vital support and assistance.

First time when Victoria heard about the Balkans was in 1993. Two Bosnian girls joined her school in a little village in Somerset. The girls were 13 years old, from Sarajevo, and were granted asylum in UK. “I always wanted to come to Bosnia since I met these two girls at my school. When I got this job in Kosovo, I emailed them and said that I am going to the Balkans”, she recollects.

But Victoria came a long way before she finally reached Pristina in June 2013. She always wanted to use her professional experience at work in some developing countries and it was a motivation for her to start looking for an international job.

Back in 2003 she was still working in London, for the  revenue authorities. “Quite a similar role to what I do now, but in the field of civil litigation”, she explains. It was only a temporary work so she applied to Ernst and Young, a multi-national company that provides tax consulting. Due to her previous experience she got the job there and for the next 4 years Victoria worked as a tax advisor. But regardless of Benjamin Franklin’s remark that “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, Victoria decided to change the certainty of a tax office and switch to practising criminal law. 

She started working for the Ministry of Justice as a legal advisor. “That was a brilliant job”, she recollects. The Magistrates’ Court is a court of first instance where everyone charged with criminal offences makes their  first appearance. Victoria’s role in the court was to sit on the bench in front of lay magistrates, who were not lawyers, and advise them on the law and their powers and how to deal with someone who is pleading guilty, assisting the Magistrates on their decisions on remand issues and the length of prison sentences and also advising on other sentences if they were pleaded guilty. “It was an interesting job, but I wanted to take the national experience I had to work abroad”, Victoria says.  Her wish came finally true.

In Kosovo she works as a legal officer at SPRK (Special Prosecution Office of Kosovo) and along with prosecutors she deals with war crimes, organised crimes and financial crimes. “The cases are really significant. I work on well known cases in Kosovo such as the Clinton Bombing Case and the Rolex Case, she points out. 

Victoria’s role is to assist prosecutors with managing case files and to support them in court, as well as to manage the investigators and police when she goes out with them for house searches to make sure they follow the law. “It is fascinating, every day is different, challenging. I just really enjoy the work. I wake up every day, thinking: What’s going to happen today? ”, says Victoria.

The most challenging part of her work is when she has to perform in a court. She finds there are striking differences as to how the law is applied in Kosovo and UK. “In Kosovo all of the criminal offences are included in one code. The procedure code regulates how we should do everything, but it is very complicated and not very flexible. Things go in a different order here. On the other hand, we have a lot of tight deadlines, which is actually great - it gets your adrenaline flowing”.

For Victoria the most fascinating part of her work is an investigation itself, but also she finds also very interesting consulting experts, preparing for trials, drafting applications for interception, going out with witnesses on site visits where the crime allegedly took place. 

Amongst many challenges facing a EULEX legal officer, certainly are the tight deadlines of the criminal procedure code.  Sometimes, it can be a real race, especially on the occasion when the defense counsel appeals the remand decision. “We have to make a response and to translate it within 24 hours. When I first got this to draft, I was in complete panic mode thinking that I am not going to finish it on time and it can’t be translated either! The translators have to work overnight but we are luckily always on time”.

Victoria likes working with the Kosovo Police. She evokes a story when she was working on a case involving a local judge. Seven simultaneous house and offices searches were being conducted at the same time and Victoria’s role was to supervise house searches. She was working with the KP and it was fascinating experience for her. To work with local professionals is also what she came to Kosovo for. 

Victoria really enjoys her time in Kosovo, hanging out with her local friends, getting invited to their homes, for Iftar or the Serbian celebration of Orthodox Christmas. She has also visited all the Balkans countries which was her main touristic goal whilst being here. Her favorite cities are Belgrade and Sarajevo, but she very much feels that Kosovo is her home and she gets homesick for Pristina when she leaves for a bit longer. What Victoria does miss however  are things like, a proper Asian food, namely Japanese. She has also got fed up with the driving style of Kosovars and their habit to park everywhere on sidewalks, but apart from these very few things she loves this country and loves living here. 

She started learning  a bit of Serbian and Albanian and  can hold a very basic conversation in both languages. “I think it is always important to know how to say basic words in a foreign language. I should know more, a lot more. I think if you come out to mission like this one, you have got to merge yourself in the culture.” After work she attends crossfit classes three times a week, all because the Balkans food is delicious and if you want to stay fit, some sport sacrifices are necessary. Victoria is also a wine lover. She did some wine tours in Kosovo and neighboring countries, but the Stone Caste winery was one of the best that she has ever seen and explored.

It is said that being a vegetarian and a foodie in Kosovo is not easy, but for Victoria it is fairly straightforward. “I usually get a bit bored of the same type of food as there are some options but it is not overly extensive”. She explains, “ I will turn into a pizza if I eat any more of them. I used to cook a lot when I was in UK, but here there is no point since I love socialising and eating out is always a good option”.

She loves spending her free time going to the Rugova Valley.” I call it my little piece of heaven, she says. I’ve hiked up to the Lake and Red Stone Mountain several times. I think it is stunning out there”.

Unfortunately her mission experience is coming to the end and 31 March will be Victoria’s last day with EULEX. But it does not mean that she will leave Pristina. “I will not leave Kosovo after March. My first choice is to carry on working in the Balkans. I don’t really want to go back to UK unless I really have to – there is just too much to explore here”.