The chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland has apologised to rape survivors who were let down by failings at the network’s support service in Edinburgh.
Sandy Brindley said a review had found “significant failings” at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre during the tenure of its chief executive Mridul Wadhwa, who quit this month after being censured over her stance on women-only provision.
A review commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland found the ERCC had failed to provide women-only spaces for 16 months, in breach of national service standards, and that Wadhwa had failed to understand the limits to her authority.
Brindley has faced growing calls to quit, including from JK Rowling, over accusations she had failed to intervene sooner over the mismanagement at ERCC and had been complicit in its culture there.
Wadhwa, a trans woman who has worked in the gender violence and equalities sectors in Scotland since 2005, has been at the centre of long-running disputes over her conviction that rejecting support from trans counsellors is transphobic.
She was named in an employment tribunal ruling in May, which found that a counsellor at ERCC, Roz Adams, had been constructively dismissed because she expressed gender critical views. It found Adams had been subjected to a “heresy hunt” because Wadhwa decided she was transphobic. “This led to a completely spurious and mishandled disciplinary process,” the tribunal said.
Brindley told BBC Scotland that local rape crisis centres were autonomous, and that Rape Crisis Scotland had no role in appointing their staff. She had no involvement in Wadhwa’s appointment but defended the policy of including trans people in its services.
“What I would say is that most rape crisis centres in Scotland provide support to men, women, trans people and non-binary people,” she said. “There is no inherent reason within that, that you could not have a trans person working within a rape crisis centre. I think what is crucial, however, is that if you do have a rape crisis service that is supporting all survivors is that there’s dedicated women-only spaces within that.”
Brindley accepted that rape and sexual assault survivors in Scotland needed reassurance about the quality of service they would receive, but said she would not resign.
“I really believe in this movement. We have achieved so much, working with survivors, working with staff, working with volunteers. I feel there’s still a lot to do, and as long as I feel that I can contribute to that and make a difference for survivors, I will be staying.”
Wadhwa said she had no comment to make.
