Survivor of Alleged Rape to Sue Police Claiming ‘Failure to Properly Investigate Breached Human Rights’

A woman is suing police claiming her human rights were breached after they failed to properly investigate an allegation of rape she made against a colleague which led her to be sacked and suffer severe mental health issues.

Jan Cruickshank alleged that a male workmate sexually harassed her in person and via text messages for three years before raping her in spring 2015.

But after an unfair and “victim blaming” investigation in which her bosses believed the man’s claim that they had been having an affair, Jan was dismissed from her job, while police said there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges.

The episode, Jan claims, had a massive impact on her financially and mentally, leading her to suffer PTSD and attempt suicide. 

Despite feeling let down by the authorities, Jan – who has waived her automatic right to anonymity as a rape complainant – is refusing to give up her fight for justice. 

The 60-year-old told Byline Times: “I have had the best part of a decade stolen from me. My family has lived this nightmare with me. 

“I speak out publicly because this is not my shame. I don’t want others to feel alone and unsupported. 

“I want to move on and reclaim my life, but I also want to help others find justice in an inadequate system.”

Almost 10 years after the alleged incident, the married mum-of-three is taking legal action against Police Scotland, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) and Police Scotland Professional Standards, via the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which hears complaints about surveillance by public bodies.

Jan claims her treatment at their hands breached her rights to a fair trial, to protection from inhuman or degrading treatment, to non-discrimination on the basis of her gender, and to privacy, claiming that she was put “under surveillance” on social media by police following her complaint.

She also alleges her case will highlight “corruption” within Police Scotland, and show where they have “acted illegally”. 

Jan is seeking recognition that the case was “mishandled” by authorities, compensation for the harm and loss she says she suffered as a result, and for those individuals or authorities responsible to be held accountable.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “A complaint about police was received in relation to this matter and was responded to in January 2024.”

A spokesperson for the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner – which carries out reviews of the way policing bodies in Scotland handle complaints made about them by members of the public but does not investigate complaints about the police – confirmed it had conducted a “handling review” over Jan’s complaint.

They said: “We issued a report to the complainer (Jan) in February 2017 which found that Police Scotland did not handle either of their three complaints to a reasonable standard.

“PIRC identified a learning point and made one recommendation to Police Scotland which was then implemented by them.” 

Jan’s claim, which is being bought by International Fraud and Investigation Services Limited, was lodged on 15 July with the IPT, which will now decide whether it can proceed.

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‘Completely Broken’

Jan, who had at the time been working for the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), alleged that a male colleague raped her in a hotel room while they were away on a work trip in March 2015. She reported it to her employer three months later.  

Jan says: “I felt completely broken and desperately needed help. I didn’t want people to know, but I had gone beyond breaking point. I hoped someone could save me. Nothing could have prepared me for what lay ahead of me.

“My employer immediately cast me as the guilty party and when I said that my colleague had [previously] exposed himself to me at work, the grievance hearing manager asked why I had ‘not said no more than once’. I was too shocked to respond appropriately.”

Jan also reported the matter to Police Scotland, who sent an officer to take a statement at her home, which was without electricity due to a recent fire.

She says the Sexual Offences Liaison Officer (SOLO) interviewed her without any support for approximately 10 hours without a break or any food, and took her statement by torchlight as the house grew dark. 

“I later discovered that the officer had radioed back to base within an hour of beginning my statement that I had not been raped. I also discovered that they had been on their first SOLO deployment and should have been supervised.”

Having encouraged Police Scotland to speak to CITB, she alleges that subsequent paperwork obtained through a Subject Access Request showed that CITB staff were discrediting Jan to Police Scotland. 

Jan’s colleague was questioned after the incident – although he was never arrested – and was not charged. “My rape accusation was not recorded,” she says. 

The man had also sent her a sexually explicit photo, which Jan reported to CITB and to police. The man was charged but the public prosecutor in Scotland, the procurator fiscal, decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute. 

Jan says: “Police Scotland sent a subjective and completely inaccurate report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) denying me justice.” 

Jan’s complaints about the man led to her being branded a liar and sacked. Her colleague was disciplined over misuse of company equipment but kept his job.

Jan, who lives with her husband and her son in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, was subsequently diagnosed with PTSD and needed extensive support to move through the ordeal.

“After almost a year of the harrowing grievance process, CITB dismissed me and protected him. I was distraught and suicidal and could not believe that I was in this situation when I had done nothing wrong.”

She took CITB to a tribunal and in November 2018 received an apology and £50,000 compensation from the company. In March 2022, Jan was awarded criminal injuries compensation for the attack by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

Police Scotland says there is not enough evidence to pursue a rape case against Jan’s former colleague. 

Jan is taking legal action against the police over their handling of her case which she says left her feeling “dismissed and let down by the system”.

Jan will allege that Police Scotland’s failure to properly investigate her rape complaint and its “lack of response to her concerns”, has infringed upon her right to access to justice and a fair trial. 

She says she was not treated as a victim as she should have been, and officers who took her initial statement did not record a “true reflection of what happened”, indicating a “lack of proper procedure” in handling her case.

Despite her efforts to clarify the decisions made in her case, Jan claims she has “faced dismissive responses and inadequate engagement from the authorities”, thus effectively denying her the right to an effective remedy for the “violations she has experienced”.

Jan now wants the Tribunal to acknowledge the shortcomings in the initial handling of her case, including the downgrading of the case by police, dismissive responses, and lack of proper investigation. 

She is seeking compensation for the harm she says she suffered from the mishandling of her case, including “emotional distress” and attempted suicide, as well as for financial loss from being dismissed from her job, which she links to the failures of the police investigation.

Managing director of International Fraud and Investigation Services Limited, John Robertson, said: “Jan’s case unfortunately is not unique, and for reasons unknown there are hundreds of rape and sexual assault complainants who have been victimised and let down by systems which by default should protect women, but do not. 

“Not only that, but the number of sexual crimes has more than doubled in Scotland in the past decade, a worrying statistic which is seldom acknowledged. 

“This will be the first time Jan’s case has been looked at through the lens of a professional misconduct case, and prospectively shortly thereafter through a dishonesty and fraud civil action. 

“Jan has been let down by not only Police Scotland, She has been massively let down by the Scottish Government who refuse to even entertain the idea that Jan is a victim who has suffered systematic abuse for 10 years.”