John Swinney yesterday claimed he was powerless to stop police allowing rapists to identify as women.
Police Scotland sparked a row after telling MSPs that allowing people charged with or convicted of rape to self-declare their sex or gender fosters ‘a strong sense of belonging’.
The force had written to a Holyrood committee after think-tank Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM) lodged a petition calling on the SNP Government to require Police Scotland, the Crown Office and the courts to accurately record the sex of people charged or convicted of sexual offences.
During yesterday’s First Minister’s Questions, Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton referred to the case of Isla Bryson, who was last year jailed for eight years for raping two women while living as a man, and asked whether or not Mr Swinney is ‘content to let another situation like that happen’.
