JK Rowling calls for taxpayers’ money to be ‘withheld’ from rape charity after trans woman quits as boss of support service for victims

JK Rowling last night called for taxpayers’ money to be “withheld” from a rape charity after a trans woman stepped down as head of a victims’ support organisation.

Mridul Wadhwa resigned after a damning investigation found that the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) – which she headed – had blocked victims’ access to biologically female counsellors.

A report commissioned by umbrella organisation Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) has condemned the centre for insisting that traumatised rape victims, some as young as 12, must indicate whether they do not want support from someone born male.

Campaigners had called for the removal of Ms Wadhwa, who is biologically male but identifies as female, and she resigned yesterday after three years in the role.

Ms Rowling wrote in X that ‘Government funding for Rape Crisis Scotland should be withdrawn if a single-sex service cannot be guaranteed, because that is what the vast majority of female victims want and need’.

Mridul Wadhwa resigned after a damning investigation found that the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) – which she headed – had blocked victims’ access to biologically female counsellors

She added: ‘This problem starts at government level. The Scottish governing party, the SNP (for which Mridul Wadhwa stood for council), has embraced gender ideology wholeheartedly and has rejected all the evidence that it is the most vulnerable women who suffer as a result.’

The author questioned why RCS boss Sandy Brindley – who once called Ms Wadhwa a “wonderful sister” – has refused to step down. Ms Rowling said: “The government continues to fund a service dominated by ideologues; vulnerable women have been denied help; and Brindley and Wadhwa continue to receive their salaries.”

Ms Wadhwa resigned after the report, by charity sector consultant Vicky Ling, found her domineering and said she did not ‘understand the limits of the authority of her role, (or) when to refer decisions to trustees’. She was portrayed as incompetent, overseeing an organisation with systemic failings.

Yesterday, the ERCC board announced that, together with Ms Wadhwa, ‘it has decided that the time is right for a change of leadership’.

The investigation was launched after an employment tribunal ruled that former ERCC employee Roz Adams had been constructively dismissed because of her “gender critical views”.

Although rape shelters are autonomous, they adhere to RCS standards.

RCS said it was “extremely concerned” that ERCC “did not have dedicated women-only spaces as required by national service standards” for around 16 months. ERCC’s board said: “We are committed to putting things right and implementing the recommendations in the report.”

The Scottish Government has awarded RCS £6 million in funding for the period 2022-2025.

In an article on X, Ms Rowling said that ‘government funding for Rape Crisis Scotland should be withdrawn if a single-gender service cannot be guaranteed, because that is what the vast majority of female victims want and need’

The Scottish Government’s Equality Minister, Kaukab Stewart (pictured), said: ‘We will continue to fund ERCC to support survivors of rape and sexual abuse, as we do for rapist refuges across the country’

Ms Brindley was asked yesterday whether she would step down. A spokesman said on her behalf: ‘RCS takes any concerns about poor practice within survivor services extremely seriously.

‘We will now work with ERCC to ensure that the study’s recommendations are implemented.’

Ms Wadhwa was approached for comment.

Equality Minister Kaukab Stewart said: “We will continue to fund ERCC to support victims of rape and sexual abuse, as we do for rape shelters across the country.”

In 2024-25, ERCC received £405,899 through the government’s Delivering Equally Safe fund and £384,200 in Covid emergency funding to reduce waiting lists.