Sex Without Consent is Judged to Be Rape
Dan McDougall and John Robertson
Originally published in The Scotsman, March 23, 2002
Anti-rape campaigners were celebrating last night in the wake of a landmark ruling by seven Scottish judges making it illegal for a man to have sex with a woman without her consent.
Police and women's group's across Scotland welcomed the decision by Scotland's senior law lords which means that in all future rape cases, no will finally mean no.
The Court of Session panel, headed by the Lord Justice General, Lord Cullen, ruled by a 5-2 majority to bring Scots law on rape into line with the tougher stance already in place in England and Wales.
The hearing was prompted by the case of Edward Watt, a university student, who was acquitted of rape at the High Court in Aberdeen when Lord Abernethy ruled he had no case to answer because there was no evidence he used force against his alleged victim.
Sandy Brindley, a spokeswoman for Glasgow Rape Crisis, said: "This definitely has made the law clearer. We very much welcome the part about overcoming a woman's will being replaced by the idea of consent and that being enshrined in law."
Gil Paterson, chairman of the Scottish parliament's cross-party group on men's violence against women and children, said: "There is a whole host of reasons why force and the need to show force is a farcical concept, so I'm delighted that it's now based on the woman's consent. If a woman says no, in future it will mean no and there is no more requirement than that. Rape is rape in any circumstance."
