Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson Alison McInnes MSP has warned that low conviction rates for rape send the wrong message.

Official figures published today show almost two-thirds of rape charges brought before Scottish courts for trial in 2008/09 do not result in a conviction, and 40% of the 528 charges reported were not indicted because of insufficient admissible evidence.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson Alison McInnes MSP said:

“Rape blights the lives of victims and their families. Low conviction rates don’t send the right message. We need to show that Scotland won’t tolerate rape.

“Collecting admissible and high quality evidence is a clearly a problem. The Justice Secretary should look into this.

“Victims need to have confidence that if they have the courage to bring cases to court, that our Justice system won’t let them down.”