LAWYERS in Aberdeen will join the boycott of Scottish Government plans to hold a pilot of juryless rape trials, according to reports.
The plans have proven controversial, with lawyers in Glasgow and Edinburgh saying they will refuse to take part in the pilot, which was proposed as part of a sweeping Justice Reform Bill earlier this month.
The Justice Secretary Angela Constance has insisted there is a “legitimate and pressing" case to move forward with a pilot of judge-only rape trials amid the boycott threat.
Among the voices against the changes was former senior judge Lord Uist, who described the plans as “constitutionally repugnant”, accusing ministers of “treating the courts as forensic laboratories in which to experiment with their policies”.
Speaking to The Herald, Aberdeen Bar Association vice president Ian Woodward-Nutt accused the Scottish Government of attempting to “engineer” higher conviction rates in such cases.
He said: “It is essential to understand that in many rape cases it is hard for the prosecution to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt.
“That is not due to some deficiency in the system that requires to be rectified, rather it is the inevitable consequence of the background circumstances in cases of this type.
“For the Government to consider it appropriate to attempt to engineer higher conviction rates and for them to try to do so by removing the essential safeguard of trial before a jury is deeply troubling.
“That is why defence lawyers in Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland have declared they will not accept instructions in cases proceeding by way of this experimental scheme.”
The change was proposed by another senior judge, Lady Dorrian, in a review that informed the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, with the Justice Secretary claiming low conviction rates for rape and attempted rape were hampered by the “prevalence of preconceptions”.
In the most recent figures, conviction rates for rape and attempted rape were 51%, compared with 91% for all other crimes.
