Imagine being raped, battling through a traumatic justice system, somehow securing a guilty verdict to then find out there is an advocacy group for CONVICTED RAPISTS who are about to make your life miserable? Well that’s exactly what rape survivors in Scotland are dealing with.
I recently had the misfortune to come across Justice for Innocent Men Scotland (JIMS) who advocate on behalf of convicted rapists and claim their victims are “false accusers”. I’ve caught their attention and they’ve dedicated part of their website to me, branding me “disgusting”.

While I initially tried to brush this, and their subsequent social media posts about me, off I became aware this issue was much broader than me. Over the last week I’ve had countless women who’ve been raped coming forward to tell me about their negative experiences with JIMS.
Many talk of how traumatic it was to see this group claim that the men who were convicting of raping them are actually innocent. Some speak of receiving offensive messages online. There have been stories of witness intimidation, and even the leaking of confidential information.
When you look into the details of some of the men JIMS claims are innocent your stomach turns. Many have been convicted of attacking multiple victims or even children. Like Gary Paterson who was found guilty of sexual offences against 4 women and a child.
Or Kyle Beveridge who was convicted of raping 3 women and engaging in abusive behaviour. Or Karl Calder-Harley who was convicted of raping 3 teenagers. And John Sturgeon who was said to have treated one of the two women he raped like a ‘dog or slave’.
This fringe group bizarrely claims that jailing men for sexual offences is a plot to “control the population by decreasing birth rates” and have even claimed that I was a spy recruited by Mi5 to seduce and entrap my rapist. Despite these extreme beliefs, they still attract many followers.
Having spoken to the brave survivors whose lives have been made a living nightmare by JIMS and their supporters, we’re clear that something needs to be done and the misogyny and victim blaming rhetoric of JIMS must be challenged.
On the 9th of September, we will be staging a peaceful counter-protest against JIMS and showing where Scotland’s moral compass lies - and that’s with survivors. We hope to see many of you there