Rape Crisis Scotland Still Failing Victims

Weasel words and broken promises

Rape Crisis Scotland is still failing victims and its CEO continues to prioritise trans-identified men over the women who have been traumatised by male sexual violence.

We have written much and often about Rape Crisis Scotland and its member organisation, Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. In recent years both groups have been beset by scandal, due in most part to the appointment of trans-identified male, Mridul Wadhwa, as CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) in May 2021.

His post was advertised under Schedule 9 Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010 - allowing it to be lawfully restricted to female applicants - and the recruitment form clearly stated that the role was open only to women. But that didn’t prevent Wadhwa from applying. And, despite his being ineligible, it did not prevent ERCC from giving him the job.

Over the last four years we have written about ERCC and Mridul Wadhwa himself. Wadhwa has no GRC and is legally male. He concealed his sex to secure a job at Forth Valley Rape Crisis Centre. He objected to legislation allowing rape victims to choose the sex of the medical clinician who examines them. He is ‘disappointed’ by the single-sex provisions allowed for in the Equality Act 2010 and finds them ‘discriminatory’ against ‘transwomen’. He sided with serial litigant and period-obsessed paedophile, Jonathan Yaniv, against a group of migrant women. Hardly the ideal candidate to be CEO of a rape crisis centre.

On 2nd August 2021, only a few months after his appointment , Wadhwa appeared on The Guilty Feminist Podcast. (For Women Scotland compiled a transcript of the entire broadcast.) Denying that women who’ve suffered male violence need female-only spaces, he commented that “Sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well… If you bring unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature, we will begin to work with you on your journey of recovery from trauma. But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices… You have to reframe your trauma… To me, therapy is political”.

His words were roundly condemned by women's service providers, mental health care professionals and rape survivors. But to no avail; Wadhwa issued a brief statement in which he doubled down on his previous comments. “If what we see/hear from someone is clearly prejudiced and we are not responding to their urgent support need it is also part of our role to provide a space to explore and challenge this”, he said.

A few weeks later, Wadhwa took part in an online webinar during which he talked about ‘inclusion and intersectionality’ in sexual violence services. (Full transcript provided by For Women Scotland.) He spoke of ERCC now being ‘trans inclusive’ and having to “Wash and clean its history” of being female-only. He spoke of the women who may be self-excluding from ERCC’s services because of its trans [ie male] inclusive policy and described them as ‘transphobic’.

Last year we reported on convicted sex offender, Cameron Downing. Because of his so-called non-binary ‘gender identity’, Downing was welcomed in at ERCC. In a recording dating from January 2022, Downing - who falsely accused one of his own victims of rape - spoke of using ERCC’s services. The ‘trans inclusive’ (ie male inclusive) policy enforced so rigorously by Wadwha and his enablers allowed access to a rape crisis centre by a dangerous sexual predator.

Article from The Scottish Daily Mail - January 2024

In January 2024, Roz Adams, a former counsellor at ERCC, took legal action against the charity after she was forced out of her job over her sex realist views. Her (successful) constructive dismissal case was heard at the Edinburgh Employment Tribunal and proceedings were documented by Tribunal Tweets.

An ERCC ‘service-user’ (ie a woman who has suffered male sexual violence) had requested to know the sex of her support worker, explaining that, understandably, she would not feel comfortable speaking with a male. Roz, therefore, suggested putting the woman’s mind at rest by informing her that the staff member in question was indeed female but identified as non-binary. She was shocked to subsequently receive a letter informing her that she was being investigated for ‘gross misconduct’ and faced immediate dismissal without pay. She left ERCC following a gruelling nine-month disciplinary process throughout which she was accused of being ‘transphobic’.

The evidence given by Roz Adams to the employment tribunal came as little surprise. She told the court that ‘gender identity is all that matters’ to Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre and spoke of the centre’s recruitment policies which allow males to be employed in supposedly women-only roles.

Not only were males employed in roles intended to be filled solely by women but Mridul Wadhwa wanted the staff who objected to be fired.

Of course, it wasn’t just the staff affected by Wadhwa’s ‘trans (ie male) inclusive’ policy; the women who have been traumatised by male sexual violence and sought help there suffered tremendously as a result. Roz Adams told the tribunal of a heart-breaking example in which a woman in her 60s was turned away by ERCC because she needed a female-only therapy group. For asking if the space was women-only, the woman received an email telling her she was not suitable for ERCC’s service.

The Employment Tribunal found that ERCC discriminated against Roz Adams on the basis of her gender critical belief & constructively dismissed her. Its judgement was not only damning of the ERCC itself - describing its investigation against Roz as ‘reminiscent of the works of Franz Kafka’ - but it was also excoriating of Mridul Wadhwa, too. The Tribunal described ‘a heresy hunt’ conducted by Wadhwa and other senior managers against Roz Adams and decided that Wadhwa had an agenda to ‘cleanse the organisation’ of staff not adhering to trans ideology. It found that he was the ‘invisible hand’ in the victimisation of Roz Adams and said that ERCC’s position was “At the very extreme end of gender identity theory”.

While not related to gender ideology, it is worth noting that Rape Crisis Scotland has also been the subject of an Employment Tribunal. In January 2022 RCS had to pay a former employee over £50,000 in compensation after an Employment Tribunal found that she had been unfairly dismissed from her role and discriminated against due to her disability. The Tribunal expressed concern at the extensive role played in proceeding by the organisation’s CEO, Sandy Brindley.

“While the Tribunal was mindful that the respondent was a small mainly voluntary organisation, it seemed extraordinary that the chief executive of the organisation would make a recommendation that an employee be suspended, take part in a grievance hearing concerning that employee and then be present at the disciplinary and appeal hearings concerning that same employee where the employee was suggesting that the grievance and disciplinary proceedings ought to have been combined.

Ms Brindley appeared unable or unwilling to understand that her presence throughout both the grievance and disciplinary processes could have a bearing on the extent to which these were conducted in an impartial manner. It was clear to the Tribunal that Ms Brindley operated an invisible hand throughout both processes and her presence was not neutral.”

Following the outcome of the Employment Tribunal in Roz Adam’s case, Rape Crisis Scotland commissioned an independent review of ERCC’s services by Vicky Ling, a Chartered Quality Professional and a Law Society Lexcel Consultant with extensive experience of working in the MVAWG sector. Her subsequent Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre National Standards Report was published in September 2024.

Unsurprisingly, the report was highly critical of ERCC and described its ‘many serious failings’ under Wadhwa’s tenure. It stated that the centre ‘damaged’ victims of sexual violence by impeding their access to female counsellors, failed to put the needs of survivors first and seriously breached the standards expected of it. “Putting women in the position of having to discuss whether the service they receive will be provided by someone who was born and continues to identify as female has caused damage.”

The report was also scathing of Wadhwa himself. It found him to have breached the limits of his role’s authority and to have been ‘domineering’ as a CEO. It portrayed him as incompetent, having ‘a chaotic approach’ in numerous key areas - including the safeguarding of staff and victims - and said that he “Failed to set professional standards of behaviour”. The report also suggested his staff were too scared to question his ‘trans activist’ approach and it condemned his controversial comments as having “Caused damage to individuals and to the reputation of the organisation”.

Wadhwa had been placed on leave in June 2024 and he finally resigned from his post following the publication of the report in September.

He should never have been appointed to that role. He’s not only a male, he’s a male with no GRC. And he’d already deceived employers to work in the women’s sector. In a 2019 interview with Fox Fisher, Wadhwa admitted that he concealed his true sex when he was recruited for a management post at Forth Valley Rape Crisis Centre.

His lying about his sex was subsequently the subject of discussion on social media.

“No one asked and I didn’t say”, he boasted. Someone did ask; there was a whole section on the application form. But Wadhwa chose to conceal the truth about himself.

Despite his being male, despite his lying his way into a women’s sector job, despite his stealing opportunities intended for women, despite his appalling comments about rape victims and even after the scathing judgement of the Employment Tribunal, Wadhwa remained employed as the CEO of a Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.

No doubt his survival in this role for so long was due in no small part to his being defended and protected by those in power. To nobody’s surprise, the Scottish Green Party supported Wadhwa in his appointment at ERCC and defended him vociferously when dissenters voiced their opposition.

On 13th August 2021, a week after Wadhwa made his shocking comments on the Guilty Feminist podcast, the Scottish Green Party issued a statement, condemning those who dared to oppose Wadhwa’s employment as the CEO of a rape crisis centre. Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, said that misinformation was being spread “Based on ignorance, bigotry and hatred”. She added, “The Scottish Greens stand in solidarity with Rape Crisis Scotland, Edinburgh Rape Crisis, survivors of gender-based violence, Mridul Wadhwa, and trans people across Scotland”.

Chapman failed to mention that, at the time, she was listed at Companies House as the secretary of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. She similarly failed to mention that, until 30th June 2021, she had been the ERCC’s chief operating officer and, therefore, Wadhwa had effectively been her boss.

In addition to having the SNP in his pocket, Wadhwa was also championed and defended most fiercely by Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland.

Sandy Brindley, CEO Rape Crisis Scotland - IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

In an article written in January 2024, former MSP, Joan McAlpine made very clear that “The leadership of Rape Crisis Scotland has been a cheerleader for the removal of women’s sex-based rights”. Indeed, RCC fully supported the Gender Recognition Reform Act but failed to support Johann Lamont’s amendment to the Forensic Services Bill which ensures that victims of sexual assault can decide on the sex (not gender) of the clinician who examines them.

When she was still an MSP, Joan McAlpine contacted Rape Crisis Scotland on behalf of several women who had all suffered male sexual violence and were extremely concerned about accessing genuinely female-only care. She organised a meeting with these women and Sandy Brindley.

The meeting took place at the ERCC offices. Sandy Brindley and the ERCC representatives gave their full names and job titles. The women used first names only and shared their traumatic stories. One woman introduced herself simply as ‘Sharon’ and it was assumed that she, too, was a survivor of male sexual violence. However, Sharon became extremely vocal, insisting to attendees that it is illegal to stipulate one’s rape counsellor is biologically female. (This is untrue and contradicted by the Equality Act 2010.) It was subsequently revealed that this woman was Sharon Cowan, a professor of Feminist and Queer Legal Studies and a prominent trans activist.

Greta is the mother of a girl who, aged 14, was gang-raped by four men in 2014. She attended the meeting at ERCC organised by Joan McAlpine. In October 2022, Greta and the other women present wrote of their experiences at that meeting in a report for the Scottish parliament.

“When the mother of a daughter gang-raped in 2014, who was also present at the meeting, explained how traumatising it was when her local rape crisis centre refused to guarantee her child a female counsellor, Ms Brindley did not acknowledge that this should never have happened. Our member was in tears at sharing her experience… Ms Burrell [Caroline Burrell, then CEO of ERCC] responded to this by elaborating on the pain suffered by men with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment on being rejected by female survivors.

Sandy clarified that any male who claims a trans identity would be treated as a woman by the service, including those who present as male, have made no changes to names or pronouns and who would be unequivocally perceived as men by all. Sandy confirmed for instance that a male-born person could work on their phone counselling line, as long as that person identified as a woman… Sandy told us that if a woman asked for a female counsellor, she could theoretically be assigned to a male-born person identifying as female, and that they would not be told in advance of the status of this person.”

As detailed by Susan Dalgety on social media in September 2024, a survivor of male sexual violence wrote of her experiences in the book, Women Won’t Wheesht. The author describes Sandy Brindley “Muttering under her breath and shaking her head” when the issue of Mridul Wadhwa was raised at a conference on male violence. Brindley also insisted (to a survivor of male violence) that Wadhwa is a woman.

But then Brindley has always rushed to Wadhwa’s defence, castigating and even threatening other women if they won’t pander to his delusions as she clearly does.

Last week it was reported that, in direct contravention of Vicky Ling’s report, Rape Crisis Scotland has reneged on its pledge to define the word ‘woman’.

Vicky Ling’s report recommended that Rape Crisis Scotland should devise and publish a definition of woman/female to be adopted across its network of member rape crisis centres. Sandy Brindley had previously accepted this recommendation and promised that work on a definition was underway.

However, Sandy Brindley has broken that promise and Rape Crisis Scotland still cannot provide a coherent and accurate definition of the word ‘woman’.

Last week Marion Scott wrote in The Sunday Post that Sandy Brindley and Rape Crisis Scotland are still pandering to the lunacy of gender ideology and pretending that being a woman is merely a question of ‘identity’.

Rape Crisis Scotland has produced a new document - almost 12 months in the making - called Draft Guidance On Protected Spaces For RCS Member Centres. It details the policy for Scotland’s 16 rape crisis centres on the provision of female-only spaces and the continued inclusion of trans-identified males.

This guidance states a woman is anyone who identifies as one. “When we use ‘woman’, we mean anyone who self-identifies as a woman. We use this language as it corresponds to a gendered perspective”, it says. It goes on to say that a woman can also be “Someone whose sex at birth was assigned as female and lives as a woman”. What meaningless drivel.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader, Rachael Hamilton MSP, called the guidance ‘confusing’ and ‘not fit for purpose’. She said, “It certainly doesn’t do much to address the concerns of women that the right to single-sex spaces will be protected at all times”.

Carolyn Brown, of campaign group Scottish Professionals Advising On Gender (ScotPAG), said, “Absolutely no lessons have been learned here… Weasel words are being used to deliberately obfuscate the continued inclusion of men self-identifying as trans women in spaces where already traumatised rape victims have gone to seek help over men’s violence”.

Mridul Wadhwa may have gone but Rape Crisis Scotland continues to fail the survivors of male violence which it was set up to help. And Sandy Brindley, though handsomely compensated, persists in demeaning and insulting the women she is meant to support.