The UK Supreme Court has made a very confused ruling about whether or not Scottish courts are breaching the right to a fair trial in rape cases. Some believe this is a ‘landmark ruling’ that could, ‘trigger multiple appeals by men convicted of sexual offences in Scotland’. In my opinion the court is having its cake and eating it.  

The ruling states that two rape cases they assessed in October last year were fair and there was no breach of the European Convention on Human Rights’ Article 6, the right to a fair trial. But also:

‘The Scottish courts should modify their current approach to the admission of evidence in trials for sexual offences because it is liable to infringe defendants’ rights under Article 6 of the Convention’.

How can the cases they were looking at be fair trials, but at the same time the approach being taken in Scotland breach Article 6? It makes no sense. The court appears to be trying to protect the reputation of the Scottish courts while also sending them a warning.

One of the convicted, Andrew Keir, appears to have been thrown under the bus by this compromise. His case is one of the most egregious examples of a miscarriage of justice I have ever seen.

Keir was sentenced to five years in prison for raping a drunk and sleeping woman at his home.........

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