Charity head ‘won’t quit’ over hindering of rape victims’ access to female counsellors

The head of a charity that oversees Scotland’s rape crisis centres has refused to quit after a report found that sexual violence victims were “damaged” by a policy that hindered their access to biologically female counsellors.

Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS), apologised “unreservedly” to women who were failed by a support centre in Edinburgh.

But Ms Brindley denied hiding behind rape survivors and told BBC Scotland that “I will be staying” as long as she could “contribute” to helping them.

She spoke out after a damning review of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) concluded that the needs of survivors were not prioritised and it failed to protect women-only spaces.

Mridul Wadhwa, a trans woman who was the centre’s chief executive, was found not to “understand the limits of her authority”.

The decision to appoint Wadhwa as ERCC chief executive in April 2021 triggered controversy as she did not have a gender recognition certificate and was therefore legally male.

Wadhwa’s resignation was announced last week, prompting JK Rowling and other feminist groups to argue Ms Brindley should also quit.

But Ms Brindley said she had only found out that ERCC was not following national standards last October and paused referrals 11 months later when the review said safeguarding was a problem.

She said she had no involvement in Wadhwa’s appointment and there was no reason to object, given her previous experience of working in the sector.

Ms Brindley also insisted that there was no reason why transgender people could not work in rape support centres, as long as women-only spaces were protected.

‘Not the person to instigate change’

However, feminist group For Women Scotland tweeted: “If Brindley only became aware of problems last October, then she has long been asleep at the wheel.”

The group said Ms Brindley had “disgracefully” ignored concerns raised with her by survivors in 2019 and her “significant failure to grasp the issues here, and not just at ERCC, shows she is not the person to instigate change”.

Wadhwa was initially placed on leave after an employment tribunal ruled in May that she presided over a “heresy hunt” against a former worker who held gender-critical beliefs.

Roz Adams won her constructive dismissal action against ERCC, with the tribunal finding she was harassed and discriminated against over her belief that biological sex is “immutable”.

She believed that women using the service should be able to know the sex of the staff that dealt with their case.

The review was then ordered by RCS, which oversees the 17 independent local rape crisis centres that are members, including Edinburgh’s.

Vicky Ling, the inquiry’s author, said she was also told that victims were not using the centre because they deemed it unsafe, as there was no guarantee of seeing a biologically female counsellor.

‘I unreservedly apologise’

Despite more than 94 per cent of rape victims being women, and the perpetrators men, ERCC failed to provide women-only safe spaces between October 2022 and February this year, while at the same time opening up services to men.

Ms Brindley told BBC Radio Scotland: “I would unreservedly apologise to any survivor who has either been let down by Edinburgh, although I do think it is important to recognise the independent report found that many, many survivors received a vital service from Edinburgh Rape Crisis.”

She said ERCC’s board has appointed Wadhwa but argued that this was not inappropriate as most of the rape crisis centres in Scotland provide support to trans people, men and women.

“There is no inherent reason within that that you couldn’t have a trans person working within a rape crisis centre,” she said.

“I think what is crucial, however, is that if you do have a rape crisis service, that is supporting all survivors is that there’s dedicated women-only spaces within that.

“This is the issue – it wasn’t protected within the Edinburgh centre.”

Ms Brindley said she hoped to introduce a “robust framework of assessment” to make sure the national standards are followed in future.

But she was challenged about comments made by Wadhwa in 2021 that some rape victims were “bigoted people” who needed to “reframe their trauma” and be re-educated if they did not agree all trans women were female.

Ms Brindley said the words “bigot” and “rape survivor” should not be used in the same sentence but Wadhwa had insisted that her comments had been “taken out of context”.