Bill Atiken, the Conservative Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee, has tonight resigned over comments he made to the Sunday Herald regarding a series of particularly horrific rapes in Glasgow.

He implied that the victim of a gang rape in a City Centre lane could have been a prostitute, and that “the police say that there’s a lot of drunken carry ons that lead to rape allegations which are subsequently dropped, put it that way.” His comments were first reported eight days ago, and although Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie sought to distance herself from them, she took no action regarding his front bench and committee positions.

Pressure has been building on Mr Aitken during the last week, culminating in Green MSP Patrick Harvie lodging a motion in the Scottish Parliament today which said:

Unacceptable comments by the Convenor of Justice Committee – That the Parliament condemns the attitude shown by Bill Aitken MSP on the subject of rape during a recent interview with the Sunday Herald newspaper; considers that Mr Aitken’s comments during this interview betray a disregard for the seriousness of rape, and imply support for the view that a victim can be held responsible for this most vicious crime; believes that this view, though disturbingly widespread, is rooted in misogyny and ignorance; considers these comments to be incompatible with the role of Justice Committee Convenor; believes that the Parliament’s credibility to deal proactively with issues of sexual violence would be undermined if the proximity of dissolution resulted in failure to hold Mr Aitken to account for these odious and shocking comments; and calls for Mr Aitken’s immediate resignation.

Responding to Mr Aitken’s decision to resign, Scottish Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesperson Robert Brown said:

It’s highly unfortunate that Bill Aitken’s distinguished political career should end in this way as a result of badly chosen and ill-advised comments.

He has been an excellent convener of the Justice Committee.  However it is important that no rape victim feels in any way that their rights would not be fully and totally upheld and defended by the Parliament and Parliamentarians.

I have said right from the start of this that Bill Aitken should resign. Conservatives are normally so supportive of victims of crime. Remember David Cameron saying last year that burglars forfeited their human rights when they broke into a house? Unfortunately, such sympathy does not seem to extend to victims of the crime of rape. The only person responsible for rape is the rapist, and comments from a senior politician blaming the victim could act as an even greater deterrent to women to report this crime.

I am perplexed as to why the media haven’t been more vocal about it, though. Aitken’s comments were in my view even worse than those made by Richard Keys and Andy Gray on Sky Sports and we all remember the furore about that – although that may have been more about getting one over on Murdoch than any concern for the issue.

Annabel Goldie has been extremely critical of the SNP minority Government’s decision, which was supported by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, to abolish short sentences, despite similar measures being introduced in England by Conservative Justice Secretary Ken Clarke. Her rhetoric on this, and her inaction on Aitken’s comments, show that she’s leading a Party that is as out of touch and reactionary as ever. She and her MSPs and candidates in the forthcoming Holyrood elections would do well to have a look at two excellent websites run by Rape Crisis Scotland,  This is not an invitation to rape me, and Not Ever which are there to tackle some of the myths and wrong attitudes around rape.

Caron Lindsay blogs at Caron’s Musings