GCU Law campaign receives cross-party support

A GCU Law campaign to reform the law on complainer anonymity in sexual offence cases has received "remarkable" cross-party support.

The Campaign for Complainer Anonymity, set up in 2020 and led by academics Seonaid Stevenson-McCabe and Dr Andrew Tickell and GCU Law students, has been calling for lifelong anonymity for complainers to be enshrined in Scots law.

Media convention dictates complainers are not named but there is no legal prohibition in Scotland - unlike in the rest of the UK.

The Scottish Government have committed to incorporating a reformed policy into a new Criminal Justice Bill, due later this year, with the Scottish Conservatives, Green, Liberal Democrats and Scottish Labour all in favour of the move.

Seonaid Stevenson-McCabe told STV News: "There is no legal automatic right. We are out of step with most common law jurisdictions throughout the world. It is not acceptable.

"In an internet age, as social media takes over, we are not just getting our news from journalists, who have had journalism training and who understand the ethics of press regulation. In some ways, all of us are publishers.

"We have had a remarkable response to the campaign. There is a groundswell of support for reforming the law."

Dr Andrew Tickell, writing in The National, added: "One thing is clear. The Scottish public overwhelmingly supports the idea of complainer anonymity.

"The assumption that victims of sexual crime have an “automatic right to lifelong anonymity in UK law” is one you encounter daily in the media."

The campaign group held a seminar on campus last Friday to discuss the reform.

The event, sponsored by the Clark Foundation for Legal Education, featured guest speakers including Kate Thompson, Justice Policy Worker at Rape Crisis Scotland, and Catriona Stewart, of The Herald.