The Drive to Get Rape Conviction Stats Up
For many years, Scottish Government ministers have shown a relentless determination to get more men convicted of sexual offences. By weaponising Moorov’s doctrine and “rape shield” legislation, thus removing any chance of a fair trial for those accused, Dorothy Bain KC and her cabinet colleagues have succeeded in jailing more men for sexual offences!
These Are Not Miscarriages of Justice
Scottish prisons are now overflowing with accused imprisoned on remand for between two and three years, who risk being convicted of rape in a kangaroo court.
This is not just the opinion of sceptics and campaigners; it is the opinion of The Law Society in Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates who intervened in support of two men both appealing rape convictions. They argued, in the UK Supreme Court in London, that Article 6 (Right to a Fair Trial) of the ECHR had been breached.
Dorothy’s Not for Turning
When solicitors and advocates point out to Dorothy Bain KC Article 6 is being breached in rape cases, she ruthlessly cracks on closing more loopholes to prevent the truth emerging of what really happened.
She recently succeeded in changing a 78-year rule in regards to corroboration to enable more rape cases to reach court. The ‘Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill‘ is currently making its way through parliament which intends to create separate Sexual Offences Courts (as so many prosecutions are expected), and do away with the “not proven” verdict. Dorothy Bain KC is also a great proponent of single judge, juryless rape trials. It looks like she won’t stop until every man the police choose to target is jailed for sexual offences, because a verbal claim will do and consent can be withdrawn retrospectively.
Jury Trials
Scotland may be the only common law country to convict in jury trials with only a simple majority. This ratio can be as low as 8/7 which shows almost half the jury has reasonable doubt as to whether the accused is guilty.
In England, a larger margin of 10/2 is required to convict. Campaigners argue this too is unfair and that for a jury to fulfil its intended function, the jury decision should be unanimous.
In the United States, Canada, India, New Zealand and elsewhere, jury decisions have to be unanimous for criminal convictions.
No Separation of Powers
Despite what is claimed, the Lord Advocate for Scotland, Dorothy Bain KC does not act independently of the Scottish Government. She has lobbied for legislative and procedural changes in relation to sexual offences which have led to innocent men and their families being terrorised. This is not an exaggeration.
No man in Scotland is safe until all legislative changes enabling unsafe convictions are repealed.
Moira Brown is the Deputy Leader of Sovereignty.
Picture credit: Reading Tom from Reading, UK, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.