Rape victims call on Yousaf to extend role of taskforce
● Campaigners urge justice secretary to include examination of corroboration
By CHRIS MARSHALL Home Affairs Correspondent part of a recently announced victims’ taskforce, which is due to meet for the first time next week.
Emma Bryson, 46, set up the group Speak Out Survivors due to the “overwhelming sense of injustice” she felt after the requirement for corroboration allowed the man who allegedly raped her in childhood to avoid prosecution.
Following a meeting with Mr Yousaf last week, she called on the justice secretary to include corroboration in the remit of the new expert group he cochairs alongside Lord Advocate James Wolffe.
Ms Bryson said: “Speak Out Survivors welcomes Humza Yousaf ’s victims’ taskforce ini-
0 Emma Bryson, left, and Shirley Ross launched the Speak Out Survivors group
tiative, particularly its stated commitment to improve the experience of rape and sexual assault victims within the justice system.
“However, we do so with some reservation. During our meeting Mr Yousaf accepted that the legal requirements of corroboration have a significant impact on the number of rape cases that make it to court. However, when asked if the issue of corroboration would be a matter for consideration by the taskforce he said that it would not.
“The experience of our membersmakesitclearthatcorroboration stands as a doorway to the criminal justice system for victims of rape and other serious sexual offences, and it is too often slammed in our faces when the quality of evidence available in such cases is routinely ignored because it does not fall within the narrow legal definitions of corroboration.
“Justice cannot be served by such limitations and if the victims’ taskforce is to be directly informed by victims’ experiences, then it must not ignore the means by which justice is too often denied.”
The Scottish Government had said the taskforce will “ensure victims’ voices are heard and streamline their journey through the justice system”.
A government spokesman had previously said: “Any potential future reform of the corroboration requirement needs to take account of the research we’ve commissioned into jury reasoning and decision making, which we expect to be complete by autumn 2019, a specific recommendation of Lord Bonomy’s review.”