It is 27 years since the case of Carol X was supposed to have changed the way rape victims are treated by the judiciary in Scotland.

Carol, a prostitute from the east end of Glasgow, was attacked by three men who mutilated her with a razor. She went to the police, who collected forensic evidence and identified the men, but the crown dropped the case because they decided the victim was too traumatised to give evidence. Carol disagreed — and fought back with a private prosecution that led to the conviction of all three attackers. It was heralded as a victory for women and for justice.

But did it make any difference? A number of recent cases would suggest not. Last week Sheriff Edward Bowen, a temporary judge, cited Calum Cuthill’s intelligence and good background before sentencing him to five years in a young offenders’ institution for the “terrifying and degrading” sexual assault and imprisonment of an 18-year-old student at Dundee University.

Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal upheld a drink-driving conviction against a woman who said she was fleeing four men who attacked her in the car park of a social club in Falkirk. The judges accepted that she had been indecently assaulted but said she should have taken “any reasonable alternative to offending behaviour”.

Meanwhile, Ann Robertson lodged a complaint against the temporary judge who ordered her to be arrested and locked in a police cell after she broke down while giving evidence at the trial of a man she accused of raping her. The judge’s actions were subsequently condemned as “disproportionate” by Lord Hamilton, head of Scotland’s judiciary.

At the time Robertson said she was treated “more like a criminal” when she testified against George Cummings at the High Court in Edinburgh. Cummings was later jailed for three-and-a-half years for sexually abusing two girls in the 1970s. The charge of raping Robertson, who waived her right to anonymity, was dropped.

“I wish I’d never put myself through this and I regret going to the police,” said Robertson afterwards. “The sheriff should be sacked before he can put anyone else though this. If that’s the way he’s going to treat victims, then he is going to stop people coming forward.”

Such cases have prompted a barrage of criticism from politicians and victim support groups. Scotland already has one of the lowest rates of rape convictions in the western world. The most recent figures released by the Scottish government show that the number of convictions for rape fell to a record low of 27 in 2006/7. Of the 922 rape cases that were reported to the police, 65 were prosecuted but only 2.9% resulted in a conviction. In England and Wales 5.6% of reported rapes lead to conviction; in Germany the figure is 8.2%.

The figures are abysmal but without a change in attitude, they are unlikely to improve. Jan MacLeod, who works for the Glasgow Women’s Support Project, says the Carol X case succeeded in bringing more sexual assault cases before the courts, but did nothing to alter the conviction rate.

“Individually there are sheriffs and judges who must have some kind of attitude problem and the system does not lend itself to being a sympathetic process,” she says. “On the other hand, the lord advocate and the Crown Office are actively looking to improve things. Yes, it is unfortunate to still have incidents that are shocking and inexcusable but it is a good thing that these incidents now attract public outrage.”

A study by Rape Crisis Scotland revealed that just 6% of women who seek counselling for sexual assault go on to make a formal complaint to the police. In many cases, the women said they were afraid of being forced to answer questions in court about their sexual history, how much they had had to drink and how they were dressed.

“The sort of questioning victims are subjected to has a significant effect in deterring women from coming forward,” says Sandy Brindley, national co-ordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland.

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