First Minister John Swinney has pledged to introduce programmes to educate pupils about misogyny in every school in Scotland after meeting the family of murdered mum-of-three Stacy Hunter. The 35-year-old was killed by her ex-partner in Renfrewshire in July after he was released on bail.
Family shares bail fears
During a BBC Radio Scotland discussion, Swinney met Stacy's mother, Ann Hunter, and her brother, Sean Hunter. They told him of their fears over the bail system that freed her killer. Ann said: "I believe if everything we know was presented to the court....I believe that they would not have just let him out on bail that easily and readily."
Swinney vowed to look again at the "bail test" which releases domestic offenders, telling the family: "Tragically there are cases where the judgement is wrong because clearly you are living with the consequences of that case. In Stacy's case the consequences of that decision were grave - the worst they could possibly have been. So I can't sit and tell you that the bail test is going to be applied with perfection. There are risks..."
GPS tracking trial announced
Swinney confirmed a new GPS tracking system for violent perpetrators would be trialled in October in the Tayside and Fife area. Sean Hunter said he wanted assurances it would not be used as a "tool" to bail more "dangerous people". He said: "I want the bail and justice system to look at making this stricter alongside the GPS tracking, rather than using it as a tool to release even more prisoners."
Swinney said the trackers would be carefully trialled before any decision is made. He said: "If we're confident about what's involved I want to get this rolled out as widely as possible as quickly as possible."
Education as key to change
Swinney described the current situation as "insufferable" and said the Scottish Government were prioritising a "substantial range of measures" to address it. He said: "The conclusion I came to over the summer was that we're not doing enough. So that has got to be confronted. Fundamentally, there is also an absolute cast iron personal commitment from me as a male first minster to lead the efforts within the government to tackle this issue within Scottish society."
He vowed to see programmes around violence being taught in every school, despite Scotland not having a mandatory education system. Swinney said: "On this issue, I think it's of such seismic significance for Scotland that we have got to get alignment between the government (and) our local authority partners...We've got to make sure that's present in every single school in the country."
He added: "Education is fundamental to the steps we have to take to change the culture within Scottish society. That will take time to have an effect on different generations of young boys and girls. Young boys about what does misogyny look like and young girls, what is just not acceptable."
Police Scotland figures show nearly 20,000 crimes categorised as violence against women and girls were reported between April and June this year. Nearly half were domestic incidents. The force says an average of 204 violent crimes against women and girls were recorded each day during 2025-26.
