A proposal to experiment with judge-only trials for cases of rape and attempted rape has been cancelled by the Scottish government.
Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance said on Thursday there was “not enough cross-party support” to proceed with the pilot scheme.
She said she was acting after hearing the thoughts of the cross-party Criminal Justice Committee and a wide range of other views.
Under the plan, which had been due to start in 2028, a single judge would have decided whether people were guilty of rape or attempted rape, in an attempt to increase conviction rates.
Lawyers and judges said the plan, part of a new justice reform bill, first proposed in April 2023, could breach human rights laws and had threatened a boycott.
All rape and attempted rape trials in Scotland are currently held before a jury of 15 people, who listen to the evidence and decide whether the accused is innocent, guilty, or the “charges not proven”.
Ms Constance told MSPs she was still planning to introduce other elements of The Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, including ending the “not proven” verdict, which does have backing from across Holyrood.
Xander Irvine: Death of boy, 3, in Edinburgh could have been avoided as woman, 91, ‘should not have been allowed to drive’
DJ Craig Strachan jailed after raping sleeping woman then confessing years later on YouTube
Texas to headline Edinburgh’s Hogmanay
In a statement she said she would push forward with plans to increase the current simple majority required for a criminal conviction to a two-thirds majority of jurors, but would drop proposals to cut the jury size from 15 to 12 – the same number as those in England.
In England and Wales, a judge in Crown Court rape and attempted rape trials asks juries to reach a unanimous verdict – that means, they should all agree on whether a defendant is “guilty” or “not guilty”.
The Scottish bill proposes a “significant package” of other reforms to ensure victims are placed at the heart of Scotland’s justice system, such as creating a specialist Sexual Offences Court and establishing a Victims and Witnesses Commissioner, Ms Constance said, along with abolishing the “not proven” verdict.
Ms Constance said: “Clearly there is not enough parliamentary support at this time” for the single-judge pilot in cases of rape and attempted rape, “so we will no longer pursue this”.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
There was, the minister said, “substantial evidence that juries may be influenced by rape myths” and promised to carry out more detailed research into jury deliberations and work to “challenge and reduce the impact of rape myths”.
Read more from Sky News:
GB News fined £100,000 over Sunak show
‘More than 400 people’ accuse al-Fayed
Comedian admits porn addiction
As far as jury reform was concerned, she said she backed the abolition of the “not proven” verdict, and pledged to seek support for “a model with two verdicts – ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’ – 15 jurors, and a two-thirds majority requirement for conviction”.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The Scottish Solicitors Bar Association had accused ministers of trying to “interfere in the independence of the judiciary and the court process”, saying they were determined to raise rape conviction rates “at any cost”.
