FORMER Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini has said the requirement for corroboration in Scottish criminal cases could be challenged at the European Court of Human Rights.

The Scottish Government has already proposed abolishing the historic rule which dictates that two separate sources of evidence are needed for a conviction.

Campaigners for sexual abuse victims have backed the plans amid concern that a considerable number of rape and attempted rape cases do not make it to court.

Dame Elish said: "My own view is that it will not be long before a victim in a case, which is marked 'no proceedings', will take the Scottish system to the European Court at Strasbourg.

"[And they will] say that because of this requirement, in sexual offending in particular, that they are unable to obtain effective criminal sanctions in Scotland."

Last month, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill backed the findings of the Lord Carloway review by publishing a bill to end the statutory need for corroboration in criminal trials.

At the time Liberal Democrat MP Sir Menzies Campbell, who practised as an advocate depute in Scotland's High Court, said the move was populism at its worst, warning: "Corroboration is an essential component of the presumption of innocence and a necessary bulwark against false accusation and injustice."

The Law Society of Scotland said: "The requirement for corroborated evidence is not an antiquated, outmoded legal notion but is a fundamental principle of our justice system."

But Rape Crisis Scotland welcomed the move, saying it would remove a barrier to cases getting to court.