NOT content with putting trans rapists in women’s prisons the Scottish government is now accused of keeping heterosexual rapists out of prison altogether. A furious row has broken out after 21-year-old Sean Hogg was given a community payback sentence by a Scottish judge after being found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl in a country park in 2018.

What does the SNP have against women? cried rape victims. JK Rowling reached for her keyboard to condemn ‘progressive Scotland’ for failing to protect women’s safety. ‘Young Scottish men’, she told her 14 million followers on Twitter , ‘are effectively being told “first time’s free.”’ Actually, in theory, they could do it any number of times before they’re 25. Under new Scottish government-approved sentencing guidelines the presumption is that, ideally, no one under that age should be sent to prison because their brains haven’t matured.

The ruling has also created a storm in the normally cloistered world of Scots law. The Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Roddy Dunlop KC, agreed with other advocates in describing the decision by the judge, Lord Lake, not to imprison Hogg as ‘very unusual’ and ‘extraordinary’. That is Scottish legal speak for ‘WTF!’ The crime of rape usually leads to a lengthy custodial sentence no matter the age of the offender.

So how could a 21 year old man possibly be given the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for such a heinous crime? Has Scotland become a tolerance zone not only for Class A drugs (police are no longer required to prosecute people for possession of heroin and crack for personal use here) but for sex crime as well? Not exactly. This bizarre situation has arisen from those good intentions which so often pave the path to perdition.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters