Surely Mridul Wadhwa has to go now? Report into ERCC out.

I assume she means the group of women survivors who contacted the journalist half an hour after she spoke to Brindley to give plaudits.

These women were all users of rape crisis services; it's not clear whether some or all of them now work.for Brindley.

It's unacceptable that they appear to have been asked to shield Brindley from criticism by speaking about their sensitive personal histories.

And clearly that trauma is far worse than a rape survivor being asked if they orgasmed during their rape by a man dressed as a woman.

I will never stop loathing these people.

This is the same Sandy Brindley and a separate employment tribunal:
https://tfn.scot/news/leading-scots-charity-ordered-to-pay-51000-to-employee-it-unfairly-dismissed

Who fuck turns around and saying a tribunal contains numerous factual errors after it's conclusion unless you have the ego the size of a planet and are tone deaf to the point of insanity.

This woman wouldn't know how to take responsibility if it hit her in the face.

Indeed.

And this is more DARVO.

Deflection from the actual verifiable women who have been harmed by the actual ERCC. Not just women supposedly being trolled online, women being harmed by the very people who they went to for help.

It's a really sick attempt to spin her way out of what her predecessor presided over.

Ms Brindley said the controversy had led to rape survivors who supported the charity experiencing "horrendous" abuse online, including being told that they "must be lying" about being raped.

Who is she talking about here? And what does she mean rape survivors who supported the charity? Shouldn't it be the other way round?

The BBC article linked above says “Ms Wadhwa was living as a woman in her native India before arriving in the UK in 2002. Her passport said she was female.”

“She has been working in the the (sic) violence against women and equality sectors in Scotland since 2005.”

”In a 2020 interview with The Ferrett news service, she said that coverage of claims she was “legally male” had unleashed “a host of hate” and that the focus on having a gender recognition certificate was racist as well as transphobic because it failed to take in Indian cultural norms.”

It doesn’t explicitly say that Wadhwa doesn’t have a GRC and (IIRC) she has no qualifications to work as a counsellor. If anything the article implies the opposite, and I think they are both important factors.

It's in the telegraph but it's very light on details
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/19/scotland-rape-charity-head-victims-counselling/

This is the section that gets me:

Ms Brindley said the controversy had led to rape survivors who supported the charity experiencing "horrendous" abuse online, including being told that they "must be lying" about being raped.

"It is absolutely astonishing to me that this is the position we're in where rape survivors can be treated in this way in the name of women's rights supposedly," said Ms Brindley.

"I think the onus is on me as chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland and on the rape crisis movement to try and move to a place where Rape Crisis is not being weaponised in the way it has."

She stressed that rape survivors could rely on the charity and that it would meet their needs.

Ms Brindley also addressed the comments made by Ms Wadhwa in the podcast, saying: "I do not think the word ‘bigot’ and ‘rape survivor’ should be used in the same sentence.

"When that podcast came out, Mridul assured us that her comments had been taken out of context - that she hadn’t intended them to refer to rape survivors that wanted a single-sex service."

1. Where the fuck has Ms Brindley been in the last few years?

2. Who is she actually blaming for weaponising this? I'd like it said explicitly. Who treated rape survivors in this way in the name of women's rights? SAY IT OUT LOUD

3. Then WHO WAS IT AT THE MEETING THAT IS DOCUMENTED IN THE SCOTTISH ARCHIVES? WHO INVITED THEM? AND WHAT DID THEY SAY? WERE THEY WEAPONISING IT?

4. Why didn't Wadhwa go after the podcast? It clearly raised issues, if Wadhwa then had to say 'it was taken out of context'. Well clearly that was a bloody lie - I mean Wadhwa's subsequent actions say they damn well meant it in the way it was said and wasn't taken out of context.

5. Who was running around telling people that Single Sex Services were illegal? And who was not correcting this? Given its a fairly fundamental exception in law for this area of work - one you'd expect the Head of Rape Crisis Scotland to be well versed in.

None of this is satisfactory.

As the head of this time of organisation you should be fully alert to 'infiltration' by individuals who have nefarious objectives, because you are dealing with very vulnerable women. This seems to be an alien concept.

Not only that but its very clear that Brindley is massively out of touch with social media and out of touch with grassroots.

When a grassroots organisation tried to approach her, not only did she not listen then but she CONTINUES TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR EXISTENCE! I mean wtf.

I thought a fairly fundamental thing in supporting rape victims was to believe them and validate them. You aren't the law, so you don't have the situation of judging whether a crime occured or not. You just support the individual.

Yet here we are and a group which had a meeting over these issues and HAVE A LETTER DATED AND ARCHIVED WITH THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT seem to have escaped Brindley memory.

Or are we supposed to believe they are all liars and it was all a stitch up when they wrote the letter?

I just have no words for that section of the interview.

There was ample opportunity TWO MONTHS after Wadhwa was employed to go huh? with that podcast.

Brindley was too busy in lala land listening to Stonewall Law and her girlfriends lectures.

And that letter in the Scottish Parliament archive? She wasn't present at that meeting? Despite her partner and her actual body being there.

In other circumstances, I'd be charmed by a Schrödinger's cat defence but this is deplorable and readily falsifiable. Is she banking on only a small number of people knowing about HEAL?

Whatever damage limitation Brinkley is attempting now, if this is the best available, it means she's insensate to ongoing events. She has a network so sharp that multiple people spontaneously contact a journalist within 30mins of learning of an interview but co-simultaneously so unhelpful that, for several years, it didn't pass along reports of there being substantial problems at ERCC and RCS to the point where JKR financed Beira's Place.

Straining credulity doesn't begin to cover this.

This is one of the most revealing parts of the interview because it deflects from any wrongdoing on the part of ERCC and RCS and instead blames external factors. It reveals her true feelings about it all.

Brindley said this?

"I think the onus is on me as chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland and on the rape crisis movement to try and move to a place where Rape Crisis is not being weaponised in the way it has."

She actually said “in the way it has”?

Utterly shameless.

I don't know the ins and outs of what she's claiming in the BBC interview, but if there's proof that she lied could someone with the evidence get in touch with the Beeb with it and get them to issue a correction?

Genuinely, feck that.

She's vile and she absolutely needs to go. I hope the pressure continues.

Quite. Particularly when the 're education' being administered by a man to a traumatised, sexually abused woman is that she must learn to be comfortable with telling him about her sexual trauma and with centering his needs, his wishes, his feelings, above and instead of her own. Her resisting this, not being comfortable with this, not wishing to say and enact what he wishes, in fact being a person with her own perceptions and reality is just her sin 'prejudice' and she must overcome it as he instructs.

And why is he doing this? Largely because it is gratifying him and his agenda to do so. Fgs priests used to play these games with women.

Brindley was all for this. This was providing women as victims to be used by another man for their own gratification. With the price of ANY help and care being this submission and participation in this ego stroking. I think you'd have to be pretty naive to not understand the bigger picture here. The sheer evil of this is still being tucked under the carpet.

Brindley is trying desperately to save her own skin, and yet she still cannot face the elephant in the room!

She told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme there was no reason why transgender people could not work in rape support centres, but that services must also provide women-only spaces.

Is Wadhwa part of those women only spaces?
What happened to same sex support???

Brindley is clinging on by her fingertips and still cannot let go of the holy symbol.
If anyone can identify as anything what the fuck is a women-only space?
"must also" implies a conflict where both sides get satisfied, and then she goes on to erase one side completely. The double speak is staggeringly deliberately deceitful.

There's something of the Liz Truss about her

But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices.”
That is not in a rape centres remit. It really, really isn't. And anyone who thinks it is, or that it should be, should not be any where near people who have suffered unimaginable trauma.

Yes, I don't know what context could be provided to make any of this okay.
Rape crisis services are not there to 're-educate' women on perceived prejudices they may or may not have.
They exist entirely to support women who have experienced sexual violence.
To support them to process what has happened to them, to offer practical advice and assistance and begin a journey of healing.
All that should happen in the most non-judgemental way. They should be accepted and respected for who they are regardless of personal beliefs.

"Out of context"? The quote is so much worse in full. Very clear that Wadhwa is talking about rape survivors.

The quote from the podcast is not in full. I think it's important it is quoted in full:
“Sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well. And so, you know, it is not a discerning crime. But these spaces are also for you. 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 went on to argue that such bigoted survivors of rape and sexual violence should work to “reframe their trauma” adding: “You also have to rethink your relationship with prejudice.”

Brindley sounds awful. Interesting, however, that she (claims she) advised ERCC to settle rather than go to tribunal. It must have been obvious then they would lose. I wonder who drove the decision to let it go to tribunal?!

I don't know what the interview was like. This was just the write up.

But Christ on a bike there's some holes in what Brindley has said.

Unfathomable incompetence level ones.

That didn't happen.
Ms Brindley also addressed the comments made by Ms Wadhwa in the podcast, saying: "I do not think the word ‘bigot’ and ‘rape survivor’ should be used in the same sentence.

"When that podcast came out, Mridul assured us that her comments had been taken out of context - that she hadn’t intended them to refer to rape survivors that wanted a single-sex service."

And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
However she said there had been "no reason" not to agree with the appointment at the time as Ms Wadhwa had significant experience of working in the sector.

And if it was, that's not a big deal.
She told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme there was no reason why transgender people could not work in rape support centres, but that services must also provide women-only spaces.

And if it is, that's not my fault.
Ms Brindley stressed that Rape Crisis Scotland, which is the national charity that sets service standards for member centres, had no involvement in hiring Ms Wadhwa - who stood down from her role after the review was published last week.

And if it was, I didn't mean it.
Ms Brindley said the controversy had led to rape survivors who supported the charity experiencing "horrendous" abuse online, including being told that they "must be lying" about being raped.

"It is absolutely astonishing to me that this is the position we're in where rape survivors can be treated in this way in the name of women's rights supposedly," said Ms Brindley.

And if I did, you deserved it.
"I think the onus is on me as chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland and on the rape crisis movement to try and move to a place where Rape Crisis is not being weaponised in the way it has."

Rape Crisis has been weaponised? By who exactly? The women wanting women's only services? Who said they didn't see a problem despite what Wadhwa's own shitty excuses? I mean it wasn't as if Wadhwa's time in previous jobs was problem free. It's astonishing that women were subjected to online abuse about being raped? When the ERCC CEO had already called them bigoted and that they needed to reframe their trauma?

Are you having a fucking laugh?

Jesus Christ does this woman just believe what every 'charming man' tells her?