Lord Advocate calls for rape law reform

Scottish Law Commission proposals do not go far enough, claims Elish Angiolini

News, 5 March 2008

The Lord Advocate has called for a radical reform of Scotland's rape laws in order to change the country's historically low conviction rates.

Speaking at a Rape Crisis Scotland conference, Elish Angiolini said law reforms need to go further than those proposed by the Scottish Law Commission. Ms Angiolini has challenged the requirement for corroboration, amending which she says would improve the situation.

The Scottish Law Commission's recommendations are likely to be included in the forthcoming Sexual Offences Bill, which will result in a clear definition of consent in rape cases.

Ms Angiolini wants the law to go further to tackle Scotland's conviction rates - currently at about 4% of reported rape cases. She said Scotland's rape laws were among the most restrictive in the western world and that the definition of rape varied wildly from country to country.

Fundamental principle

The requirement for corroboration is a fundamental principle of the Scottish legal system. The Lord Advocate said this needs to be looked at if the bid to reform rape laws is to be taken seriously. She thought the Commission's proposals at present would not make much difference to rape conviction rates.

However, she said she was encouraged that the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill had asked the Commission to look at the law of evidence, as reforms of both the law of evidence and substantive law could help make changes.

Ms Angiolini added that she thought the "Moorov doctrine", which enables a pattern of offending to be proved even though each individual offence is only spoken to by one witness, should be extended to help prosecutors prove more sex crimes. This would work in cases where an offender had abused younger siblings, gone on to abuse their own children and eventually their own grandchildren. Currently, courts will only apply the Moorov rule where offences have taken place within a period of a few years.