Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, was picking up her daughter from primary school when a journalist called, asking for her response to JK Rowling’s demand for her resignation.
By the time the conversation ended, Brindley was in tears.
“I never get upset in front of my daughter,” she recalls. Her little girl, noticing her distress, asked what was wrong.
Brindley replied, “Someone’s calling for my resignation.” When her daughter inquired, “Who?” Brindley softly responded, “JK Rowling.”
Her daughter, wide-eyed, looked up and said, “That’s one of my favorite authors, Mummy.”
Brindley now smiles as she recounts the incident. “What I didn’t say was, Well, it’s me or her!” she laughs.
While she can find humor in the situation, it marks a serious turning point for Brindley, who, at 50, has been on the receiving end of countless online campaigns calling for her to step down, often tagged #BrindleyMustGo.
After enduring years of public attacks from prominent figures, Brindley admits that she has had enough. She does not expect to remain in her role by this time next year.
As chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, Sandy Brindley has spent years working to support survivors and “make a change for the better in the world.”
While she finds her role “wonderful in so many ways,” it also comes with a significant downside — the “real vulnerability” that comes with being in the public eye.
“I feel like I’m in a place of complete vulnerability right now,” Brindley admits. “It’s not something I can do long term. I have to acknowledge the personal cost: it affects my daughter, it affects my family.”
Brindley is clear that her decision to eventually step down isn’t directly tied to the recent controversy surrounding the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, where trans activist Mridul Wadhwa resigned after allegations of harassing staff with gender-critical views.
An internal review found that Wadhwa had overstepped her authority, but for Brindley, the strain has been building for years.
“There’s been a constant sense of being under severe scrutiny,” she explains. “Of course, I should be scrutinized because of my job, but this feels deeply personal — like a visceral hatred of me for simply doing my work.”
Online disputes frequently escalate into media inquiries, adding to the mounting pressure.
Brindley describes restless nights, including one before a recent interview where she found herself awake at 3 a.m., replaying potential criticisms in her mind.
“The night after, again, I’m wondering, ‘What have I said, how could it be criticised?”
Life in the public eye can turn chaotic quickly. During a radio interview in July, where she discussed proposals to change sentencing guidelines for rape, she was unexpectedly questioned about the controversy surrounding the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC).
Former CEO Mridul Wadhwa had been accused by an employment judge of leading a “heresy hunt” against staff with gender-critical views.
Although Brindley clarified that ERCC’s board is autonomous and she had no role in Wadhwa’s appointment, her remarks were later spun into a misleading headline that read, “Charity boss says tribunal judgment no bar to men working in rape crisis centres.”
