Fewer than 40 upskirting cases being passed to Crown Office a year

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Fewer than 40 cases of upskirting per year were passed on to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) since 2018, figures have revealed.A freedom of information request by the Scottish Liberal Democrats showed 226 cases of upskirting were reported to the COPFS between July that year and July 2024 – an average of 38 a year.The party's justice spokesperson Liam McArthur called for the Scottish Government to "give victims confidence that their cases will be dealt with and instil in perpetrators a fear that will not get away with it." Upskirting involves a person taking images or videos underneath someone’s clothing without permission.

The Lib Dems said “loopholes” in the law mean offences only cover images obtained for motives of sexual gratification or for causing distress.McArthur urged the Government to review the law around upskirting.

He said: “I would love to think that these limited number of offences represented the sum total of upskirting offences in our country.

However, the reality is that victims already feel a sense of shame when reporting offenders to the police and worry that there will be no consequences.“We need the Government to take these offences seriously.