Government ‘cannot ignore’ lawyer warnings on juryless rape trials, say Tories

The Government “cannot ignore” warnings from the legal profession about a pilot scheme for juryless rape trials, the Scottish Conservatives’ justice spokesman has said.

Jamie Greene said every bar association in Scotland has voiced concerns about the plans.

The potential for a pilot scheme was announced as part of a wide-ranging shake-up of the criminal justice system, including the scrapping of the not proven verdict.

It gives ministers the power to carry out a pilot of rape trials being conducted by a single judge without a jury.

However, many in the legal profession say this will be unworkable and would risk miscarriages of justice.

Mr Greene spoke during a Holyrood debate on how the justice system can have a trauma-informed approach.

He said: “Today we learned that pretty much every defence lawyer in Scotland would boycott a pilot for such juryless trials.

“No defence solicitor in their right mind would advise their client to participate in a pilot of this nature and a judge-only trial for the most serious of crimes.”

John Swinney, the former deputy first minister who now sits on the backbenches, intervened to say Mr Greene was “in danger of arguing at cross purposes with himself”.

Mr Swinney said: “He (Mr Greene) has just slammed the door on a means of actually strengthening the outcomes for victims on rape cases.”

The Tory MSP said the president of the Law Society had been clear that the principles of the justice system should not be undermined to increase conviction rates.

He said: “It’s not just the media and politicians that are fuelling this discussion, it’s coming from the judiciary itself.

“The Government cannot ignore those views or warnings. In fact it would do so at its peril in my view.”

Justice Secretary Angela Constance said, however, there was “overwhelming” evidence that jurors’ preconceptions were impacting on the outcomes of rape trials.

She stressed that the planned pilot of trials before a judge only, rather than with a jury, was “part of a much wider package” of reforms to the justice system.

But she said it was “time that we have the courage to acknowledge problems where they exist” such as the “longstanding and significant disparity in conviction rates for rape in comparison to other offences”.

Ms Constance told MSPs: “We need to own these problems. And we need to seek to solve them.”

She said that MSPs would be able to “debate and discuss the detail” of the plans “in the months ahead of us”, with the Justice Secretary stressing: “It is important that we listen to all voices, and debate and discuss all the evidence, And I very much intend to proceed in that vein.

“Because the evidence is overwhelming that jurors’ preconceptions about rape and how those can be carried forward into deliberations and impact on verdicts, which is not the case in other serious crimes.”