Juryless trials would have been ‘a good thing’ says solicitor general

One of Scotland’s most senior lawyers has continued to back the juryless trial pilot for sexual offence cases despite the Scottish Government ditching the plans.

Ruth Charteris, the solicitor general, said juryless trials would be been “a good thing” to help address the “absolutely pitiful” conviction rates when it comes to sexual offences.

Justice Secretary Angela Constance announced last month the plans to pilot trials for serious sexual offences without a jury had been axed.

The plans had come up against significant opposition from many legal professionals and politicians at Holyrood. Constance said there was “not enough parliamentary support at this time”.

Speaking exclusively to Holyrood, Charteris said while juryless trials would not have been a “panacea”, it would have seen judges providing reasons for conviction decisions. Juries do not have to provide reasons.

She said while she understood why the pilot has been cancelled amidst opposition, it would have been “a good thing”.

She added: “The conviction rate for rape hovers at about 48 to 51 per cent, but that disguises the fact that in the case of single-complainer, single-accused rapes – often that’s acquaintance rapes – it’s down to as low as 24 per cent.

“That’s against a normal conviction rate of about 88 per cent. We are working hard to address it within the prosecution service.”

Charteris also spoke about women who are jailed, saying they often have a “very complex relationship with abuse”. She said that as a prosecutor, she finds it “even more difficult” to look at a female accused when in court because she is “conscious of the tragedies, the probably manageable tragedies, that were in her story”.

She said: “It’s a complex picture that impacts on families and one of the areas that really needs looked at is alternatives to incarceration.”

The solicitor general also reflected on how her early life influenced her decision to become a legal professional, saying she had inherited a sense of public service from her parents.

As a student, she worked with the Equal Justice Initiative non-profit in Alabama which involved working on death penalty cases at the appeal stage.

As a member of the Free Church of Scotland, Charteris said her faith gave her an early grasp of core legal concepts. “Growing up, I might not have heard much about law or lawyers, but I certainly heard a lot about justice and about accountability,” she said.

“Faith is really important to me. Lady Cosgrove, who was the first female judge, came from a Jewish background and she very much spoke about how she could relate to so much of what is pictured in the Bible about justice and ‘justice rolling down like water’. For my own part, the death penalty is a very nuanced and difficult subject. I don’t think there’s necessarily a Biblical warrant for it, but I do believe in justice and part of that has to be accountability.”