Father's fingerprint error anger
Shirley McKie case reaches out of court settlement
for £750,000

It was revealed today that the civil action taken against Scottish Ministers by Shirley McKie was settled out of court yesterday for £750,000.

The hearing had been due to begin at 10.30 yesterday morning in Edinburgh, but the agreement for the full amount being sought by McKie was reached minutes before the case was due to start.

Lawyers for the Scottish Executive said that the out of court settlement was payment without admission of liability.

Both Iain McKie, Shirley's father, and MSP Alex Neil of the SNP, are continuing to call for a public inquiry into the case.

According to Mr McKie, there have so far been 10 separate investigations into the case, all of which have cleared Ms McKie.

After denying accusations that she was in the victim's house, Ms McKie was charged with perjury, but cleared following a trial.

In January, the Sunday Herald revealed that a report commissioned by the Crown Office in 2000 into the case, and which contained further damning information regarding the actions of the Scottish Fingerprint Service, was never made public.

This report showed that a third fingerprint was wrongly identified by Scottish experts.

David Asbury, jailed for the murder and sentenced to life, spent 3 years in prison. He was released in 2000, following doubts over fingerprint identification being raised by Danish experts who were called in to review the evidence.

The report had been known to Scottish ministers, the SCRO and the Crown Office since 2000.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson is still refusing to comment on why she did not act on the report and instead contributed to what has been described by some as the biggest cover-up Scotland has seen.

Michael Russell MSP this morning described Cathy Jamieson's position as Justice Minister as "untenable". Stating that Ms Jamieson was fully aware of the details of the case, and the Crown Office report, at the time of her appointment as Justice Minister in 2003.

According to the MSP, Cathy Jamieson has stated some time ago that she would never speak of this case again. So far, she is keeping her word.

In February 2002, Ms McKie lost the case against Strathclyde Police, when she sued for malicious prosecution. Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police demanded a legal bill of £13,000 when she lost. This was paid by an anonymous donor. The Chief Constable knew of the Crown Office report at the time.

When asked to comment, Shirley said that she "I just wish that someone had come to their senses a long time ago."

When asked if other convictions dependent on fingerprint evidence might be unsafe, Iain McKie replied "Of course they might be unsafe." "There could well be people languishing in prison in Scotland who should not be there because of similar mistakes."

The SCRO have refused to comment on questions regarding the suppressed report, but confirm that the SFS is now subject to mandatory external competency testing for all of their experts and that this is carried out annually by a US based forensic testing service.

Penny Campbell

8 February 2006