Melanie Jones obituary

Mel Jones helped to set up Wirral Rape Crisis Counselling Service with a small group of women in Wallasey, Merseyside Photograph: family handout

My friend Melanie Jones, who has died aged 71, was a social worker who specialised in aiding people with addictions, and was a founding member of the Wirral Rape Crisis Counselling Service, set up in Merseyside in 1986.

Mel helped to establish the service with a small group of women in Wallasey, after the murder and sexual assault of Diane Sindall, a 21-year-old local florist.