Sexual Offences

Two Scottish universities have begun paying settlements to students who were sexually abused by a disgraced academic. Strathclyde University and Heriot-Watt University have paid five-figure sums to at least two victims of professor Kevin O'Gorman, with payouts expected to total hundreds of thousands

A rapist who beat and tortured several partners has been jailed indefinitely after posthumous testimony from two victims. Unemployed Alexander Thomson, 42, of Broxburn, West Lothian, was made the subject of an order for lifelong restriction at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday.

A consultation on "improving victims’ experiences of the justice system", with a particular focus on sexual offences, has opened. It takes forward the work of the Victims Taskforce and Programme for government commitments to: establish a Victims’ Commissioner, introduce a statutory right

Scotland's new justice secretary has said he will not shy away from reforms that would raise the conviction rate in sex cases. Keith Brown said controversial plans for specialist sex crime courts without juries and the abolition of the not proven verdict, whose existence enables more acquittals acco

New research carried out on behalf of the Scottish Sentencing Council has found a lack of awareness over the offences created by the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 and suggests the public should be engaged on the range and scope of sexual offences. The independently conducted research

Supplementary experimental prison population statistics covering the period 2009-10 to 2019-20 have been published by Scotland’s chief statistician. The data indicate that the overall average daily prison population fluctuated over the 10 years to 2019-20. Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, there wa

An Edinburgh academic has proposed a novel framework for establishing when deceptive sex should be considered to have crossed the threshold of criminality. In a new paper, Dr Chloë Kennedy of Edinburgh Law School proposes the use of an "identity nonrecognition" framework, centring the role that

The Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland has published new research into how sexual history and bad character evidence is used in sexual offences trials. The findings have led to a call by the commission for an urgent review on how courts and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Servic

New data recorded by Police Scotland shows an increase in sexual offences towards children over the past five years. The figures reveal that last year an average of 15 child sexual offences were recorded every day in Scotland. Across the UK there were 73,518 recorded offences in 2019/20. Where age a

Lawyers have said there is a case for complainers in sexual offences cases to be given their own legal representation when applications are made to lead evidence of bad character or sexual history so they can make submissions on whether such an application should be granted in order to prevent "re-v

There has been a drop in crimes recorded under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, according to Scotland's chief statistician. In figures released today that analyse the impact of the coronavirus lockdown, a 13 per cent drop in domestic abuse crimes was reported as compared with April

The manner in which a sexual assault case was conducted "gives rise to real causes of concern", the Lord Justice General has said. At the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary, Lord Carloway, sitting with Lord Turnbull and Lord Pentland, refused the appeal of Gavin Watson MacDonald who had be

Sex offence rates in Glasgow have declined by 22.5 per cent in the nine months to December 31, 2019, according to police figures. The number of such crimes recorded in the division dropped from 837 to 648 as compared with the same period in the preceding year.

A bill providing for the healthcare needs of alleged victims of rape and sexual offences is to be considered by the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee. The bill would allow alleged victims over the age of 16 to ‘self-refer’ themselves to NHS facilities for forensic me

The Bar Council has partnered with a Silicon Valley company to create an app for barristers to report bullying and sexual harassment. Talk to Spot will be rolled out this autumn and follows reports this year of widespread inappropriate behaviour at the bar.