Are we really about to send the victims of rape and other sex crimes the message that they need to be whiter than white if they want to see their attacked prosecuted?

It sounds like we might be.

The UK Supreme Court, after hearing an appeal by Broughty Ferry rapist Andy Keir, called Scotland’s laws around protecting the victims of sex crimes “too restrictive” and suggested the legal system make changes to avoid impinging on a defendant’s rights.

The truth is the number of convictions in sex attack crimes is up 12% across Scotland, which can be attributed in part to more victims being prepared to come forward and report the incidents to the police.

I think that is great because it means that they feel like they will be heard and taken seriously (and for a long time, that was absolutely not the case).

My belief is that one of the reasons for this rise is that there are rules around not allowing a victim’s sexual history to be used as evidence by........

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