PROPOSALS to introduce judge-only rape trials have split a Holyrood committee.

MSPs on the criminal justice committee agreed the suggestion not to use juries was “one of the most controversial” of a Bill which aims to make major changes to the justice system.

Members of the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association have already threatened to boycott such trials.

Four SNP MSPs on the committee backed the idea, but made clear if a pilot project did go ahead it should be for no longer than 18 months.

But the two Conservative MSPs on the committee insisted such a scheme would represent a “fundamental departure” from the “long-established right” of an accused person to be put on trial in front of a jury of their peers.

Both Sharon Dowey and Russell Findlay insisted there was “insufficient evidence to justify what would amount to an experiment with people’s lives.”

The two Labour MSPs, Katy Clark and Pauline McNeill, also made it clear they did not support the proposals in their present form.

They said if a pilot did go ahead, the Scottish government should consider holding trials before a panel of judges, instead of one judge alone, and that there should also be a sunset clause to limit how long it could run for.

The committee was also split on another major provision in the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill — the proposal for a new sexual offences court.

But the committee did support the Bill’s abolition of the not-proven verdict in Scotland’s courts.