Fingerprint experts told police inquiry six years ago McKie evidence was 'fabricated'

* Revelation undermines Executive's 'honest mistake' claim
* Inquiry highlights 'cover-up' and 'criminality'
By Liam McDougall, Home Affairs Editor

TWO of the world's leading fingerprint experts told a police inquiry six years ago that the forensic case against former detective Shirley McKie was "fabricated" and had "verged on malpractice".
The Sunday Herald can reveal that Arie Zeelenberg, the head of the national fingerprint service in the Netherlands, and Torger Rudrud, the assistant chief of police of Norway, told a Scottish police inquiry in 2000 about their concerns.

They had examined the forensic evidence used by Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) fingerprint experts in the case of McKie, who last week accepted £50,000 from the Scottish Executive as an out-of-court settlement after a nine-year battle over perjury charges.

The inquiry, led by the then deputy chief constable of Tayside Police, James Mackay, and Scott Robertson, a detective chief superintendent with the force, also claimed that the SCRO experts had been involved in a "cover up"

and a "course of criminality". Although the final report was submitted to the Crown Office with the conclusions, the

allegations were never pursued.

To date, the report, whose findings were also circulated to minister has never been made public and justice officials are now blocking its release.

McKie's battle began in 1997, while she was working as a detective constable with Strathclyde Police, when four SCRO experts claimed to have identified her fingerprint in the home of murder victim Marion Ross.

The fingerprint suggested McKie had been at the crime scene illegally. McKie insisted the fingerprint was not hers and was charged with perjury ... but was cleared after a trial.

With the reliability of Scottish fingerprint evidence in crisis, Mackay was commissioned to investigate the case. As part of the inquiry, two SCRO experts made a presentation at Tulliallan Police College in August 2000 to show how their fingerprint evidence proved that the mark had been made by McKie.

But the Sunday Herald can reveal that Zeelenberg and Rudrud, who were at Tulliallan, later examined the SCRO evidence and concluded it was "fabricated".

Their report accuses the SCRO experts of "ignoring" points which suggested a disparity between McKie's prints and the print found at the crime scene, and wrongly "promoting" points which make it appear they matched.

In another staggering statement, they accuse the SCRO experts of marking up contours of the wood frame and making it appear that they are contours of the print.

One expert told the Sunday Herald: "The findings were conveyed to Scott Robertson, along with expert opinion, in August 2000. Robertson was told the presentation had verged on malpractice."

Another source said: "At first sight [the SCRO case] looks very impressive, showing 45 points in sequence. When you look at it in detail, however, it's just Disneyland. There are a lot of invented points."

When the Scottish Executive agreed to pay McKie 50,000 last week it insisted the misidentification was an "honest mistake".

In another twist, it emerged last night that the six serving experts who misidentified the print of former detective Shirley McKie were refusing to accept that they had made a mistake.

The six wrote to Scotland's most senior judge in November warning him that if the Scottish Executive settled with McKie it would make the position of the Scottish Fingerprint Service "untenable".

Nobody was available at the SCRO to comment last night.

12 February 2006

 

Search WWW Search www.faascotland.co.uk