Yesterday, Mridul Wadhwa – a trans-identified male and the head of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) – resigned, after a scathing report on the centre revealed how it had been corrupted by gender ideology.
The report was commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland, which was forced to act after the ‘serious failings’ of the ERCC were exposed in an employment tribunal judgment in July this year.
The case had been brought by a former ERCC employee, Roz Adams, who had been victimised by the centre because she held gender-critical beliefs. A judge found that she had been unlawfully discriminated against and unfairly dismissed, simply because she asked whether rape victims could be told the sex of the counsellor assigned to them. The judge described this as a ‘heresy hunt’.
The report exposes how transgender activists were ruling the roost across Scotland, running publicly funded rape crisis centres for their own twisted benefit.
According to the report: ‘Putting women in the position of having to discuss whether the service they receive will be provided by someone who was born and continues to identify as female has caused damage and does not amount to the provision of protected “women-only” spaces.’
Yesterday, it was announced that: ‘Mridul has stood down from her role as CEO of ERCC.’
That one sentence says it all. Not only is the board refusing to accept that Wadhwa is male, but he was also allowed to leave of his own accord. It’s worth pointing out that some £1.9 million of Scottish taxpayers’ money was handed to the ERCC in 2023.
Adams was put through hell in a job she had been devoted to, whilst the board chose to support and defend a man described in yesterday’s report as having ‘failed to set professional standards of behaviour’ and who ‘did not understand the limits of [his] role’s authority.’
Shortly after his appointment, Wadhwa was asked on a podcast whether women should be entitled to access rape crisis centres that are free of men. He replied:
Sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well… But if you bring unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature, we will begin to work with you on your journey of recovery from trauma. But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices.
Wadhwa and his acolytes saw fit to denigrate traumatised women because they considered anyone who failed to accept the ‘trans women are women’ doctrine to be hateful. Further to this, when J.K. Rowling set up and funded Beira’s Place, a female only service for sexual assault victims, the ERCC did not ever refer one woman there, despite the Edinburgh centre having a waiting list for counselling.
The handmaidens that appointed Wadhwa, and defended him throughout, remain in post. How did so much of the women’s sector become so ‘inclusive’ that this man placed (by women) in a position of power, was allowed the privilege of resigning?
The fact that Wadhwa has been allowed to ‘step down’ leaves you with the impression that the board continues to be weak
The UK’s first rape crisis centre opened in north London in 1976. Ever since, rape centres have helped and supported millions of women and girls in the aftermath of sexual assaults and other abuse. They have been a remarkable example of the success of a feminist approach to working together as women to improve women’s lives.
The key to this success was the resolutely feminist approach, which made clear to survivors that they were never to blame, regardless of whether or not they had fought back, screamed ‘no’, or had sex with the rapist previously.
Feminists had made good progress prior to the trans train steaming into town. Putting women front and centre, we had built up women-only services such as domestic violence refuges and rape crisis centres, and trained police officers to do their jobs properly. Then along came the likes of Wadhwa, whose appointment I believe has caused so many women so much harm.
The trans rights lobby is a men’s rights movement, yet women are very often its staunchest enablers. After all, Scottish public life was, for almost a decade, dominated by Nicola Sturgeon, who – until feminists forced her hand – advocated putting rapists in women’s prisons.
Will anyone ever be held accountable for the shameful harms they have enabled and inflicted on sexual assault victims? The ERCC board that created this problem has now decided that it is acceptable to allow Wadhwa to leave of his own volition: it is not.
The fact that Wadhwa has been allowed to ‘step down’ leaves you with the impression that the board continues to be weak, in thrall to this manipulative man, and neither caring – nor even thinking – about the victims who need the security of a women-only space. Wadhwa should never have been hired, and he should have been fired. Why has the entire board not resigned in shame?
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