FAA Scotland - Scottish Criminal Justice

Scottish Criminal Justice in the spotlight again

Third case in 4 months to reveal evidence of a cover-up and bungles by Crown Office makes a joke out of the Scottish Criminal Justice system

This week it was revealed that the conviction of Nat Fraser, for the murder of his wife, Arlene, is unsafe and Mr Fraser could be released soon.

Central to the case against Mr Fraser, was the apparent disappearance and reappearance of Arlene’s rings.

During the trial, it was alleged by the prosecution that Nat Fraser had been responsible for replacing the rings in the house 9 days after Mrs Fraser disappeared. Relatives were convinced that the rings had not been there previously.

The prosecution claimed that this proved Mr Fraser had access to his wife’s body.

It has now been revealed that the jury were never told that a former Grampian police officer claimed the rings had been removed and replaced by a member of Grampian police investigation team.

In the wake of the ongoing furore over the Shirley McKie case and the revelation in December that George McPhee spend 18 years in prison after an important document was withheld from the trial, this serves to further undermine public confidence in the Scottish Criminal Justice system and makes an external review harder to refuse.

Also in relation to Grampian police, former officer Fabian Wright, who resigned last month, has been jailed for five years for killing 16 year old Lisa-Marie Wyllie in a high speed car crash in January last year.

Wright also had a previous conviction for theft, six years before joining Grampian police. It has been revealed that 24 officers currently serving with Grampian police have convictions. Seven of these officers were convicted before being recruited, 16 were convicted whilst serving as police officers and remain in the force.

Two cases within the same number of days, one involving a corrupt police officer who faked the theft of his own car for the insurance money, have seen the Sheriff’s involved criticise the Crown Office for their decisions to prosecute each case under summary procedure.

As a result, in each case, the maximum prison sentence that the Sheriff was able to impose, was so little it was considered by Sheriff Michael Fletcher to be “a complete waste of time”.

Sheriff Caldwell was “unable to comprehend” why the Crown Office had decided to prosecute police constable Alan Gavin under summary prosecution. If the case had been held in front of a jury, this corrupt officer could have received a sentence of 2 to 3 years.

Under summary prosecution, this was reduced to 3 months for a first offender, in this particular case, it would have resulted in an effective sentence of only 6 weeks.

SNP MSP Alex Neil has condemned the Crown Office, describing their judgement as “getting worse”. Margaret Mitchell, justice spokeswoman for the Conservatives has also expressed her concern.

Penny Campbell
16 March 2006