POLICE Scotland has insisted there are no cases of men who have been charged with rape being recorded as being female by the force.
In a letter to Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee, Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs sought to provide assurance to MSPs on the issue.
On the back of a letter sent by police to a Holyrood committee, claims were made by Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton during First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood earlier this month that a male rapist could demand to be called a woman and “further traumatise his victim”, but the senior officer made clear that “this would not happen”.
In a letter to MSPs he said: “The committee should be absolutely assured that a man who commits rape or serious sexual assaults will be recorded as a male.
“There is no instance or record on police systems of a male having been arrested and charged with rape whose gender has been recorded as female. This has not happened.”
The senior officer wrote to MSPs ahead of a meeting of watchdogs at the Scottish Police Authority on Thursday, where Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell is expected to be questioned on the matter.
Farrell also clarified to Sky News that rapists will not be treated as women in the eyes of the law, whether they self-identify as female or not.
She said: “An individual comes into custody, and if the sex of that person is pertinent to the investigation, they will be treated – in the scenario of a rape – and we will investigate that as a man.”
🗣️ “You can only commit that crime as a man”. 🚨 Police Scotland Chief Constable tells @SkyNews rapists will be banned from having the chance to self identify as women. 🧐Follows years of confusion on the gender policy enforced by officers. 📺 Full interview… @Infante_Fran pic.twitter.com/d3nmSXZrfi
— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) September 25, 2024
Responding to the scenario of a suspected rapist saying they identify as a woman, she said: “We will continue that investigation as a man, because it is pertinent and relevant to the crime that we are investigating.”
Meanwhile, MSPs on Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee are considering a petition raising concerns that a transgender offender, who was born male but self-identifies as female, could be recorded as female in crime statistics.
The controversy comes in the wake of high-profile cases, including that of Adam Graham, who began identifying as Isla Bryson while waiting to stand trial after being accused of two rapes.
Bryson was convicted of rape in February 2023 and jailed for eight years, initially being sent to the all-female Cornton Vale prison outside Stirling, before being transferred to a male prison.
A review into the handling of Bryson by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) found that “at no point were any women in the care of the prison service at risk of harm”.
In his letter, Speirs offered “further reassurance” to MSPs by explaining that in cases where someone is charged with a serious sexual assault, Police Scotland use DNA samples to determine their biological sex.
The police officer added: “This profile, and biological sex, is retained on the Scottish DNA Database and is available to be searched against crime scene samples to aid historic and future investigations.”
He stressed to MSPs that an offender’s gender self-identification would not supersede “wider policing principles” as he added that Police Scotland “is working hard, with partners and communities, to address is the scale, prevalence and impact of sexual violence”.
Speirs continued: “Whilst the matter raised around our procedures for gender self-identification is important, this is not the issue impacting on the safety of woman and girls.”
He also stressed that incidents involving transgender offenders “are rare”, noting that the Scottish census in 2022 found just 19,990 people in Scotland who were either trans or had a trans history.
The police officer noted: “This is 0.44% of people aged 16 and over, illustrating the rarity of these particular circumstances.”
