Rape charity denies gender ‘heresy hunt’

A TRANSGENDER woman who heads a Scottish rape charity has been accused of presiding over a “heresy hunt” against a former employee who expressed gender-critical beliefs.

Mridul Wadhwa, chief executive at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) discriminated against Roz Adams, a support counsellor, when her views on gender became known, she claims.

At an employment tribunal in Edinburgh yesterday, lawyer Naomi Cunningham, representing Ms Adams, claimed the ERCC mounted an “inquisition” after a female rape survivor said she would feel uncomfortable talking to a man and asked to know the biological sex of her support worker. Ms Adams said she was accused of being “transphobic” after suggesting in an email that they tell her that one volunteer at the charity was “a woman at birth who now identifies as being non-binary”.

Ms Cunningham told the tribunal Ms Wadhwa held a “hostile attitude towards sex-realist beliefs” and used the incident to instigate a nine-month disciplinary procedure against Ms Adams.

Ms Wadhwa, who was born male, was among a number of high-profile transgender people named by JK Rowling in a social media post this week. Ms Cunningham told the tribunal an internal investigation into Ms Adams was a “heresy hunt”.

Ms Adams previously said she was “horrified” when she received a letter advising she was being investigated for gross misconduct and faced the possibility of immediate dismissal. She took sick leave but, after weeks of worry, was told she would face only a warning. She eventually resigned in March 2023.

A lawyer for the ERCC denied claims of a witch hunt, and said Ms Adams’s conduct had contravened ERCC policy.

The tribunal will make a decision at a future date.

Police Scotland has said no action will be taken against JK Rowling under Humza Yousaf’s controversial hate crime law. Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act introduces offences for threatening or abusive behaviour intended to stir up hatred, which previously applied only to race. They carry a possible seven-year prison sentence.