THE Tories have demanded a review after new figures showed that seven per cent of convicted rapists in Scotland were given community work rather than being sent to prison.
Ruth Davidson called for a “calm, considered, fresh review” into the Community Payback Order where offenders are made to carry out unpaid work such as litter-picking, graffiti-cleaning, gardening, gritting and craftwork rather than going to jail.
Data uncovered by the Daily Mail showed that six CPOs were issued for rape or attempted rape in 2014-2015.
In West Lothian two CPOs were given for the rape of a young child and one for sexual assault on a young child. Sheriffs and judges handed out CPOs to those guilty of child sexual offences nine times in South Ayrshire and in 15 cases in Dumfries and Galloway.
A spokesperson for Rape Crisis Scotland said: “It is important penalties awarded for crimes as serious as rape and attempted rape reflect the gravity of those offences.
“It is difficult to see in what circumstances a CPO could ever be an appropriate sentence for rape, or rape of a young child”. According to the figures almost a third of those given a CPO don’t bother to complete the sentence. In total, across Scotland 15,440 CPOs were issued in 2014-15 but only 11,062 were complete, while 4,378 were not. The figures, Davidson said at yesterday’s First Minister’s Questions, showed CPOs were “not working fine”.
“They were an SNP creation and they are this Government’s policy, but we have learned again today that they are being applied to serious crimes such as rape when they should not be, that up to a third of them are breached and that up to a fifth of them do not contain any punishment element at all.”
Nicola Sturgeon responded, saying she agreed rape should be “treated with the utmost seriousness and severity,” but stressed sentencing had to be a matter for the courts.
“When a non-custodial sentence is given, the court will have considered all relevant matters in the case.
“Individuals on community payback orders are also subject to robust and on-going risk assessment and, where appropriate, that will include multi-agency public protection arrangements.”
She added: “It is right that, in our society, it is the courts – the independent judiciary – that decide on sentences.”
The First Minister stressed that there had been a review of CPOs last year and that it showed they were “viewed with a degree of confidence by most sheriffs and are seen as an improvement on previous community sentences,” going on to say that CPOs were generally much more effective at rehabilitation than custodial sentences with significantly lower reconviction rates.
Though there would be no review, Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would “continue to consider, to evaluate and, where necessary, to make changes” to CPOs “in the interests of keeping the public safe and making sure that we are doing what we need to do to reduce reoffending”.
Hepburn: DWP must end sanctions for Scots on work programmes hits the poorest
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