Logjammed cases: 85% involve sexual violence against women and girls

The Lord Advocate has warned of an alarming backlog in cases involving rape and male violence against women.

Dorothy Bain told MSPs “radical action” was needed with 837 cases awaiting trial before a High Court jury – up 57% since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the backlog of all cases in Scotland’s High Court has worsened again over the past three months as the backlog of criminal cases pending in all courts hits 40,000, figures reveal.

There are 389 trials, involving the most serious criminal charges, with a date fixed and up to 85% of them involving rape or serious sexual violence. When talking to MSPs, it is understood Bain was referring to all indicted cases, including those waiting for a trial to be fixed.

The data, published quarterly by the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS), covers the three-month period to the end of September. SCTS said the High Court increase was due to new trials being fixed.

Efforts have been continuing to try to make inroads into the numbers of cases that have piled up since the beginning of lockdown last year when courts closed.

From September, an extra 16 trial courts have been available across all court levels, which led to a 22% increase in trials compared to the previous three-month period. Four extra High Court trial courts have been available in that time.

The number of outstanding Sheriff Court summary trials, where a sheriff decides the case without a jury, stood at 32,433 – a reduction of 3% on the previous quarter. Domestic abuse trials outstanding at this level decreased by 10% to 6,889. The figures showed 4,090 domestic abuse cases were concluded in the quarter, up 24% on the previous period.

The number of trials scheduled at Justice of the Peace courts increased by 14% to 7,890 compared to the previous three-month period.

Across all courts, almost 18,000 trials were called during the latest three-month period, up more than 50% on the previous quarter. Bain last week told MSPs plea deals would not be struck in courts in an effort to relieve the backlog.

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David Fraser, SCTS executive director of court operations, has previously suggested the backlog could take up to five years to clear and Labour MSP Pauline McNeill said that was concerning since so many cases involved male violence against women.

She said: “There has to be recognition that the delay in cases disproportionately affects women and children and that the big picture is the prevalence of male violence to women and girls.

“It is a deep societal problem and requires more than just legislative change to recover this horrific trend. We need to think very carefully how we are going to plan to eradicate the long delays for trials without compromising justice and we do need firm action.”

However, solicitor advocate Robert More, a leading criminal defence lawyer, last year told The Sunday Post he believed the backlog could never be cleared due to the numbers of cases now backed up in the system and ongoing numbers of new cases being called.

The Scottish Courts Service said: “Supported by £50m Scottish Government funding, the court recovery programme commenced in September and increases capacity beyond pre-Covid levels, with additional High Court, Sheriff and Jury and Sheriff Summary trials operating daily. While we have been clear it will take a number of years to return the overall backlog to pre-Covid levels, cases continue to progress through the court system and continue to be concluded on a daily basis at all stages.”