Fresh call to scrap pilot of judge-only rape trials

PROPOSALS to pilot rape trials without a jury should be ditched, lawyers have said, after a Holyrood committee failed to give its backing to the move. The Law Society of Scotland has urged the Scottish Government to abandon plans to hold trials for rape and attempted rape before a judge alone, instead of a judge and jury.

It is also urging ministers not to go ahead with the abolition of Scotland’s unique not proven verdict if new “balancing provisions” for juries are not included in the changes.

The measures are all included in the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill currently being considered by Holyrood. However, in a major report, MSPs on the Criminal Justice Committee revealed they were split on the proposal to hold juryless trials for rape and attempted rape cases, with the four SNP MSPs supporting the move, and the two Labour and two Conservative MSPs on the committee opposed to it.

Members of the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association have threatened to boycott such trials if they go ahead.

Meanwhile, Law Society of Scotland president Sheila Webster said the committee report “further underlines” its concerns about “key elements of the bill”.

She said: “The lack of consensus [in the committee] confirms this plan is flawed, and is lacking detail and supporting evidence. It should be removed from the bill.”

On the section of the report dealing with the not proven verdict, she said: “It appears that committee members support scrapping the third verdict despite acknowledging they don’t know what the impact of that decision will be. Scrapping not proven without any balancing provisions would be an entirely unacceptable outcome with unforeseeable outcomes.

“If there is insufficient evidence to decide on jury size and verdict majority, then not proven must be retained.”

The bill also proposes to reduce the number of jurors needed for trials, along with changing the proportion needed to find an accused person guilty of an offence.

Currently, a person can be found guilty if eight members of a jury of 15 agree that it is the correct verdict. The bill proposes at least eight members of a jury of 12 people would be required for any conviction.

After Scotland’s most senior prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, warned this could make it harder to secure convictions, the committee said it could not support the proposed changes to jury size and majority, with MSPs saying they had “not heard compelling evidence”.

However, the Law Society said it still supported the establishment of a new victims commissioner as proposed in the bill, despite MSPs not backing this.

The committee report said MSPs “remain to be convinced that a strong case has been made” for such a post.

However, speaking for the Law Society, Webster said: “We remain supportive of significant parts of the bill, including around the anonymity of complainers in sexual offence cases, the establishment of a new commissioner, and a focus on traumainformed practice.”

Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: “These proposals are a result of the recommendations of the independent review carried out by Lady Dorrian, Scotland’s second-most senior judge.”

She pledged to “continue to work with and listen to the voices of members from all parties, of partners from across the justice system, and of victims themselves”.

She added: “Survivors and families have shown immense bravery and dedication in campaigning for this to improve our legal system.”