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Our response to Lord’s Advocate’s letter

The Lord Advocate has written to the Scottish Parliament’s criminal justice committee following the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of convicted rapists David Daly and Andrew Keir. However, it also said that Scotland should change how it considers applications for evidence in sexual offence trials. 

The ruling will change how certain evidence involving sexual history and character are considered for use in trials in Scotland. This may impact some cases currently taking place. It will also allow some convicted sex offenders to make further applications for appeal. 

Lord Advoc­ate Dorothy Bain KC said com­plain­ers were likely to suf­fer “alarm and dis­tress” because of potential trial delays and the possibility of having to make fresh state­ments.

You can read the Lord Advocate’s full letter here: Letter from the Lord Advocate regarding the UK Supreme Court Judgement concerning sections 274 and 275 of Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act

In response to the Lord Advocate’s letter, Rape Crisis Scotland chief executive Sandy Brindley said: “We recognise the concerns raised by the Lord Advocate and the profound and deeply distressing impact they will undoubtedly have on survivors of rape and sexual violence.

“Survivors already face unconscionable delays within the criminal justice system. Further adjournments will cause more unnecessary stress and may put women off going to court at all. Meanwhile, many survivors whose rapists were convicted are incredibly anxious about the prospect of historical appeals. Even if the appeals have no merit, there is a chance survivors will be forced to revisit an incredibly distressing part of their lives that they thought they had put behind them.

“Limitations on sexual history and character evidence was put into place because women were regularly being subjected to irrelevant and humiliating questioning. We only need to look back a few years to find an instance of a complainer in a sexual offence case being asked 11 different questions on what she was wearing immediately prior to and during her sexual assault. If women think that there is a risk that we will result to those days, they will stop reporting rape.”