Nicola Sturgeon says the furious backlash to Scottish government plans to pilot jury-less trials for rape cases is the latest example of the polarisation of politics that contributed to her resignation as first minister. The proposal, part of a wide-ranging justice reform bill introduced by her successor, Humza Yousaf, aims to tackle endemic low conviction rates for rape prosecution, and would make Scotland the first part of the UK to use specialist courts and judge-only trials for serious sexual assaults.
But it has already attracted condemnation from the highest levels of the legal profession across the UK, with lawyers’ associations throughout Scotland balloting to join a near unanimous boycott of the scheme. In her first policy intervention since she stood down as first minister, Sturgeon calls on those in the legal profession who immediately opposed the idea as well as supportive MSPs like herself to “take a breath”. “This issue matters. It should be beyond party politics. And it should not be beyond our body politic to approach it differently.” Writing in the Guardian, Sturgeon also acknowledges that the period since she left office “hasn’t unfolded exactly as I anticipated”, a reference to the continuing police investigation in her party’s finances, which involved the “nightmare” arrest of her husband, the former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, and the forensic search of their home. She does not directly address any of the unanswered questions surrounding Operation Branchform, investigating allegations the party had mishandled more than £600,000 in donations, though she has repeatedly insisted that it had nothing to do with her resignation in February and expressed frustration that “I’m not able to give my version of what is under way”. After both Murrell and the former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie were arrested and released without charge pending further investigations, speculation continues about whether Sturgeon will herself be arrested or otherwise interviewed by officers. In recent weeks, allies including the SNP’s former director of communications Murray Foote have challenged the police investigation, with Foote insisting he does not believe it will result in any charges and describing the pitching of forensic tents outside the former first minister’s home as a “grotesque circus”. Regardless of the outcome of the police investigation, anger among party members towards Sturgeon at the emerging lack of governance and transparency under her leadership remains palpable, and has left Yousaf facing a clamour for internal reform. Her intervention in the row over judge-led rape trials comes a day after the former supreme court judge Lord Hope told the Sunday Times the plans risk undermining “the most basic principle of judicial independence”, while earlier this month Lord Uist accused politicians of “treating the courts as forensic laboratories in which to experiment with their policies”. Sturgeon points out that the pilot was recommended by Scotland’s second most senior judge, Lady Dorrian, rather than “a politician-inspired plan to undermine the justice system”. The proposals, which form part of a suite of radical measures set out by Yousaf and the justice minister, Angela Constance, last month, including the abolition of the controversial Scottish verdict of “not proven”, were welcomed as “transformative” by campaigners and survivors of sexual assault. Noting that she was still first minister when the cabinet signed off the victims, witnesses and justice reform (Scotland) bill, Sturgeon says “there has always been a recognition that the principle and detail of this proposal need serious consideration” and states her willingness to table amendments as a backbencher that help allay concerns. “It is surely at the end of that process – not before it has even started – that a judgment should be made on whether or not it is possible to design a pilot that might help tackle the denial of justice for many rape victims, without compromising the rights of those accused of such crimes.”