Posted by Iain McKie on March 09, 2000 at 09:01:37:
‘There’s nane(none) ever fear’d that the truth should be heard,
But they whom the truth would indite’.
Our Scottish national poet Robert Burns might well have had the present Scottish Criminal Prosecution System in mind when he wrote these words in 1792.
If you have been following this ‘comments page’ you will be aware that a jury in the High Court, Glasgow unanimously cleared my daughter Shirley McKie of perjury on 14, May, 1999. At that time she was a serving officer in Strathclyde Police and had been subjected to years of oppression, cover up and procrastination within the prosecution system in Scotland, which cost the public purse in excess of £250,000.
Despite the substantial body of fingerprint evidence produced on this page by Pat Wertheim, David Grieve, Ed German and many other ‘experts’ from across the world, Mr Jim Wallace, Minister for Justice and the Lord Advocate have refused to answer any letters of complaint and my offer of evidence to support these complaints.
That this evidence has been backed by massive public, media and political pressure in Scotland only serves to make the situation even more extraordinary.
The proposed Inquiry into the Scottish Criminal Records Office has still to publish its terms of reference let alone start working.
If the Minister for Justice is unwilling to mediate between the individual and the ‘arrogant expert’ fingerprinting as a science will, I believe, suffer. This cannot be in the interests of democracy and freedom.
Robert Burns was writing at the beginning of the French Revolution and was drawing on an old Jacobite song.
I find it an indictment of the Criminal Prosecution System in Scotland that it needs to be reminded of Burns’ revolutionary sentiments at the very time our alleged ‘New’ democracy staggers into life.
Following the resignation of the Lord Advocate and as the Lockerbie Trial approaches the eyes of the world are on Scotland.
From the evidence I have before me a massive cover-up is being perpetrated in Shirley’s case. The Prosecution System in Scotland has a lot to lose by being found wanting yet again.
‘Whom will the truth indite’?
If the Minister for Justice and the Lord Advocate don’t answer this question soon it will be answered for them!
Sincere thanks for your continuing interest and watch this space.