The beleaguered head of Rape Crisis Scotland is under increasing pressure to resign after it emerged that she knew in 2019 that the Edinburgh branch was not providing women-only spaces for survivors.
Charity chief executive Sandy Brindley had claimed she was unaware that Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) was not following national standards by failing to offer female-only spaces until last October.
But she held a meeting in October 2019 with traumatised women, including survivors of rape and sexual assault and the mother of a teenage girl who had been gang-raped, where it was acknowledged that services were open to any individual who said they identified as a woman.
Women from the Heal Survivors Group – who self-excluded from services offered by Rape Crisis Scotland over fears they might encounter biological males – were left ‘distressed and worried’ that those in charge at the ERCC felt that they ‘cannot and therefore will not provide a female-only service for females’.
Yesterday the feminist campaign group For Women Scotland again called for Ms Brindley, who has said she will leave her post in the next year, to resign.
Chief Executive of charity Rape Crisis Sandy Brindley is under increasing pressure to resign
The chief executive is already under pressure to quit after being forced to apologise ‘unreservedly’ over the failings at ERCC, which a review found had failed to offer female-only spaces over a 16-month period.
The review also criticised the centre’s transgender former chief executive Mridul Wadhwa, who was appointed in 2021 and resigned earlier this month after being found to have failed ‘to set professional standards of behaviour’ and to understand ‘the limits on her role’s authority’.
Susan Smith of For Women Scotland said: ‘We share the anger and frustration of the survivors who met with Ms Brindley five years ago.
‘Throughout the intervening period, she continued to back Wadhwa even as he openly talked about “bigoted” victims or of sacking members of staff who know sex is real.
‘It is beyond the realm of possibility that she failed to notice these atrocious comments or failed to see that such opinions would be put into practice to the detriment to women who needed a safe haven.
‘As it happens, ERCC was failing women even before Wadhwa’s tenure. The rot goes deeper, and a culture shift is needed at RCS and other centres across Scotland, which are also in hock to this pernicious anti-woman ideology.’
Details of the October 2019 meeting are available on the Scottish Parliament website after the survivors’ group wrote to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee in 2022 while the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was being considered.
The letter to convener Joe Fitzpatrick stated: ‘Our stated purpose was to seek reassurance that female survivors of male sexual violence would not encounter men, including men with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, in the female-only therapeutic environment and to share our concerns about including any men, including those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, in this environment.’
It also included a follow-up email sent to Ms Brindley and Caroline Burrell, the then manager of ERCC, who both attended the meeting.
The email, dated December 1 2019, said: ‘Although we left the meeting feeling distressed and worried by your clarification of your policies and the fact that you feel you cannot and therefore will not provide a female-only service for females, we hope that we may continue to engage with you with the aim of finding a compromise that meets the needs of female survivors of male violence, as well as your own as providers and those of your trans-identifying service users, volunteers and staff.’
One woman who was sexually abused as a child and was present at the meeting told the Sunday Mail: ‘When we were asking about women-only spaces, Sandy wouldn’t give us a straight answer.
‘When she talked about women she was including trans-identifying males in that, but when we asked her to confirm that this meant there was no female-only space, she refused to answer.
‘We were forced to go the route of saying “people with a penis and people with a vagina” to try to find a common language.’
Ms Brindley was also criticised by the author JK Rowling, who campaigns for single-sex spaces, for allowing a trans activist to be present at the meeting.
A Rape Crisis spokeswoman said: ‘The independent review of ERCC found that between October 2022 and February 2024, there were no protected women-only spaces available through ERCC unless they were specifically requested.
‘Prior to October 2022, ERCC operated women only provision which was inclusive of all women as defined by ERCC, who operate independently of RCS.
‘This account of the meeting referred to was provided to RCS on December 1, 2019.
‘We responded to the note of the meeting on December 6, 2019, to say we didn’t recognise the account provided. This remains the case.’
