ANGER OVER FRESH CORROBORATION RETHINK
email Scotland’s top law officer has been criticised over a rethink on plans to abolish the law on corroboration.
The Scottish Government wanted to drop the need for evidence from at least two sources in a bid to boost low conviction rates for crimes such as rape and domestic abuse.
But ministers were forced to shelve those plans over concerns that a basic safeguard of Scots law would be lost, leading to miscarriages of justice.
However, Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said in an interview yesterday that abolishing corroboration was “something that we will come back to”.
Wolffe, who was appointed last year, said: “Lord Bonomy identified a range of things which ought to be put in place if we abolish corroboration.
“They included changing the majority for a guilty verdict in a jury, giving the judge the power to withdraw a case from a jury if the evidence was not properly conveyed and a range of other measures.
“There’s further work to be done by way of research but I suspect we wi l l come back to the debate, which might include the abolition of corroboration, so long as the system as a whole is robust.
“I t h i n k we should come back to that debate at an appropriate point.”
But Scot t ish C on s e r v a t i v e justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: “The weight of expert legal opinion is in favour of keeping corroboration, and any attempts to scrap it will only serve to damage our justice system.”
Scottish Labour said: “Justice Secretary Michael Matheson must stick to his decision and not bring this proposal back to parliament.”
Almost 2000 people reported rapes or attempted rapes to the police in Scotland in 2015. Just 270 reached court and 125 were convicted.
Sandy Brindley of Rape Crisis Scotland said: “The requirement for corroboration in Scots law has a disproportionate impact on rape cases because they often take place in private and it can be difficult to find corroboration.
“Only a very small proportion of rapes reported to the police ever make it to court, and by far the most common reason given is lack of corroboration.”
The Scottish Government said: “Future consideration of reform needs to await the findings of research.”