JK Rowling blasts ‘arrogant’ Rape Crisis boss in row over controversial support centre led by a trans woman

JK Rowling has launched a furious attack on the head of a rape charity, accusing her of “arrogance and complacency”.

The Harry Potter author has demanded that Sandy Brindley, director of Rape Crisis Scotland, resign after a damning investigation into an Edinburgh emergency service.

Ms Brindley has retained her role after a damning investigation found that the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, led by chief executive Mridul Wadhwa, a trans woman, blocked victims’ access to biologically female care providers.

Last weekend, the controversial CEO told a newspaper that Ms Rowling had burst into tears over her comments.

But yesterday, Ms Rowling continued her tirade against Ms Brindley.

In a series of social media messages addressed to the charity’s chief executive, the bestselling author said: ‘When you were in charge of Rape Crisis Scotland, a man now serving a prison sentence for multiple sexual assaults was ‘treated’ at the centre in Edinburgh.

The man in charge of the Edinburgh centre branded rape victims seeking single-sex services ‘intolerant’.

‘Under your leadership, several women have excluded themselves from Edinburgh city centre because of the male CEO you defended and praised.

Ms Brindley is under mounting pressure to resign following a damning investigation into a support service in Edinburgh

‘During your time, a 14-year-old girl who had been raped felt she had no access to help because she was not guaranteed any sex space.

For years, women’s organizations and rape victims have told you that your policies were harming vulnerable girls and women.

“You didn’t care. You wouldn’t listen. Backed by government funding, you acted arrogant and self-righteous.”

She added: ‘I can only assume that your intimate relationship with the SNP government, which strongly supports gender identity ideology, made you feel untouchable.

‘You would never respond to women’s concerns unless someone of high standing challenged you.

‘You finally decided to publicly respond to one of the women with concerns – me. And how do you deal with those concerns? You claim to be my victim.

‘Maybe you should try to view your trauma in a different light, like the man you publicly supported told rape victims to do?

“Or we can have a face-to-face meeting where you express your pain, and my partner, who you didn’t know would be there, lectures you – just like you did with rape victims.”

Ms Rowling then referred to the service she had set up for women in response to Rape Crisis’ gender policy.

She said: ‘I founded Beira’s Place, a gender-specific support organisation for victims of sexual abuse in Edinburgh. It was a traumatic experience for the survivors who funded the organisation to be told that they had to think of men as women if they wanted to be seen as such. They had nowhere else to turn.

“You place more value on recognizing men who identify as transgender than on the needs of female survivors.

“If I am not moved by your tears, it is because too many women have cried because of the ideology you forced them to embrace. [when] “They were at their most vulnerable.”

Rape Crisis Scotland is the umbrella organisation for centres such as the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.

Ms Brindley, who once supported Ms Wadhwa as a “wonderful sister”, said last week that she believed there was no reason why transgender people should not be able to work in rape shelters, but that there should also be women-only spaces.

She told the Sunday Times she was in tears when her daughter was there and journalist JK Rowling asked her to step down.

She insisted she would not leave her post because of the uproar surrounding the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.

And she said claims Rowling made about an earlier meeting between Rape Crisis Scotland and a group of survivors were “demonstrably false”.

Ms Brindley told the newspaper: ‘What story do I have? I’m a single parent who works for a charity. JK Rowling is a billionaire. I have no story, so the truth doesn’t matter.’