Times article Mridul Wadhwa placed on 'leave' in May.

[Mollyollydolly]

Well they kept that quiet.

Archive version of The Times article below.

"The chief executive of a rape crisis support centre has been put on leave pending an investigation into its “Kafkaesque” treatment of staff.

Mridul Wadhwa, a man who identifies as a woman, was sent home in May by the board of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) after being identified as the “invisible hand” behind a “heresy hunt” designed to force out Roz Adams, a counsellor with gender-critical views.

The outcry over Wadhwa’s behaviour intensified following the sentencing this week of Cameron Downing, a coercive and manipulative male sex offender, who identified as non-binary and claimed to have received extensive support from ERCC."

archive.ph/y5f2L#selection-2217.0-2225.235

Mridul Wadhwa became CEO of ERCC in 2021.

Also with their ego they will want to play the victim and resigning wouldn’t fit that narrative. “I had to resign from my job because of transphobia and racism” doesn’t sound as great on podcast compared to “I was fired from my job because of transphobia and racism by these white cis women who are in positions of power and we need to dismantle these systems and have more people like me working in these sectors” (but MW doesn’t want that cos then they aren’t special and unique)

ERCC will be playing it as safely as they can because they know MW will try to claim unfair dismissal on the grounds of discrimination, which is most likely the reason why they were never fired from FVRC after it was revealed they had no GRC

He was the one who thought women who had been raped should prioritise educating themselves about their transphobia over focusing on their own wellbeing and trauma in a Rape Crisis counselling session.
That this was endorsed by Edinburgh Rape Crisis was, to me, peak trans misogyny.
Why do we as a society persist in letting narcissistic misogynist males rule over us? When will we learn they are fecking useless at everything except self-promotion and self-gratification?

Interesting Katie Horsburgh changed her name to Katie H. on LinkedIn since she resigned.

She was certainly known as her full name immediately after the tribunal decision because I checked her out.

This bit is fascinating.

So the charity had checks and balances and had members which meant women had power within their own organisation.

Then a bloke stripped all that power and effectively became a mini dictator of the organisation.

Think about the psychology of that.

That doesn't just happen by accident.

Wondering if now he's been here so long he is naturalized* British? and therefore when labour bring in self id he can get a grc?

I freely admit I've no idea of the process anymore of how to become a British citizen, or if that will make a difference for him.

Thanks WaterThyme for the timeline - v interesting.

When was MW first employed - do you know?

Thanks for the archive link. Good news about the man who was in charge of a rape crisis centre and who claimed that “rape victims need to reframe their trauma”.

Wadhwa was welcomed as ERCC’s new CEO in May 2021

@Bodeganights I'm not sure either but he would have to apply for citizenship in the UK and give up his Indian citizenship (India don't do duel citizenship) if he qualified.
That he hasn't could be because he doesn't want to or he doesn't qualify we will never know, however it does mean he'll remain both biologically and legally male

“I had to resign from my job because of transphobia and racism” doesn’t sound as great on podcast compared to “I was fired from my job because of transphobia and racism by these white cis women who are in positions of power and we need to dismantle these systems and have more people like me working in these sectors”

I wonder if Deborah Frances White will have MW back on the Guilty Feminist podcast. She was a big champion of them.

This bit is fascinating.

So the charity had checks and balances and had members which meant women had power within their own organisation.

Then a bloke stripped all that power and effectively became a mini dictator of the organisation.

Think about the psychology of that.

That doesn't just happen by accident.

Indeed.

I wonder why they maintained that they were using the Equality Act single sex exception to recruit their staff?

Encouraging news. Does this mean somebody has finally grown a pair of balls?
(No pun intended)

Well, who’d have thought that would go wrong? 🙄

From the Companies House info, ERCC have 6 officers at present, all appointed since 2021.

Since 2005, there have been 53 officers, with 47 resignations.

This turnover seems...high.

Jeez - I didn't realise he didn't even have a GRC!! Wow he pulled a blinder on them, and by extension on the vulnerable women who use the service.

A cheat, liar and manipulator doing his thing in plain sight.

Agreed.

God I'm so tired of these fucking grifters.

Can guarantee behind closed doors MW will be ranting about these white cis heteronormative lawyers and judges and how the court case reinforces that people in positions of power will commit “acts of violence” against migrant trans women. MW won’t resign because that would mean admitting they did something wrong. And they won’t believe they did

Melanie Reid has written about this in her column in the Scottish section in the Times. I've copied the relevant bit

Charity’s crisis puts heavy burden on young team

Charity’s crisis puts heavy burden on young team
Mridul Wadhwa, who has been absent as chief executive at Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre for more than two months over a ‘heresy hunt’, should resign
Melanie Reid

Sunday July 21 2024, 5.30pm BST, The Times

The great sadness about turmoil at any vital charity is that it jeopardises its reason for existing — in this case to protect women at risk of serious violence.
The Times revealed this weekend that Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) has been without a chief executive for more than two months. Mridul Wadhwa, who identifies as female but is legally male, was sent home after being identified by an employment tribunal as the “invisible hand” behind a “heresy hunt” designed to force out a counsellor who had sympathised with a victim’s wish to have only a female counsellor.

My biggest fears are for the charity’s clients, women who seek support when in danger. But as an unpaid director of another charity, I sympathise greatly with the all-woman board of ERCC, responsible for managing what’s become an unprecedented crisis.

Three directors are in their twenties, one in their thirties, the other, a charity worker, in her fifties. Only one, who’s 27, has been on the board for longer than three years. Two have been there only two years; the two, aged 24 and 26, joined just over a year ago. And they don’t appear hugely experienced. None predate the decision to appoint Wadhwa in 2021, when there were six directors, all of whom have since resigned.

If I dwell on my legal and moral responsibilities being on a board, I find them mildly terrifying. Among other things you’re responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern and safeguarding its assets. I only cope because I sit beside experienced, high-flying co-directors with skill sets in vital areas of governance, finance, risk, HR, stewardship of resources and legal obligations.

Wadhwa, it strikes me, should resign for the sake of the charity.

Ha! As if MW would put the charity (or indeed rape victims) ahead of himself.

Grifters, grifters everywhere.

I think this bears repeating. How does one’s legal sex change when one’s gender changes given that GI proponents argue for these to be distinctly different concepts? I’d be interested to know the basis of Haldane’s judgement when everyone within the GI camp argues gender does not equate to sex.

Yes, a man is barred from a room, a job, a sport because he is a man. But, especially with self ID, these same rooms, jobs, sports could be open to this same man literally minutes later because he has been given a piece of paper. How does that make sense?

I think at that time not just ERCC but other groups (not just Scotland) either were so Stonewalled, or as a point of political activism, deliberated used the SSE knowing they would misapply them.

And the point, as made upthread, was nobody challenged them or if the did the relevant authorities didn't think it important enough to bother correcting.

Never forget the sucess of the TRAs is that it is built on the far older, and far more wide ranging MRA culture