What On Earth Is Going On ???
From today's Glasgow Herald A former detective who was wrongly accused of leaving her fingerprint at a murder scene yesterday received £750,000 in compensation. Shirley McKie agreed the out-of-court settlement of her damages action with the Scottish Executive, but demanded a public inquiry into her nine-year ordeal and called for "serious criminal charges" to follow........... ...........said a (Scottish Executive) spokeswoman. "We want to make it clear however that this settlement has been made on the basis that the identification was an honest mistake made in good faith."....... .......Unison reacted angrily to the settlement, claiming its members in the SCRO had been "hung out to dry to save the reputations of others", and accused the executive of "capitulating to media pressure". So, we the taxpayers have paid three-quarters of a million to clear up 'an honest mistake'. The victim of the 'honest mistake' meanwhile clearly doesn't believe it was any such thing and appears to be very far from satisfied. Fascinatingly, it appears that those who allegedly made the 'honest mistake' don't think that's what it was either - as far as I understand it the forensic scientists involved still believe they made no mistake at all, and there seems a wealth of festering resentment behind the Unison statement. This is one of the most disquieting episodes in public life in this country in recent years. The 'beauty' of corroborated fingerprint examination is that there CANNOT be mistakes. The power of fingerprint evidence derives entirely from its INFALLIBILITY. If the 'odd honest mistake' can be made here or there it renders the whole thing unsafe and thus virtually useless. As far as I understand it, with the settlement of Shirley McKie's legal action, Scotland has become the only jurisdiction in the world to operate on the basis that fingerprint identification is FALLIBLE. We are very far from the end of this particular story. If ever a situation was crying out for a full-scale and rigorous public inquiry then this is it. It is a scandal that this situation has remained essentially unresolved for 9 years. Any inquiry might usefully address itself to (a) is fingerprint evidence reliable or not? (b) if it is, how exactly was an honest mistake made by 4 separate fingerprint examiners? (c) if it isn't, what do we do about all those convicted solely on such evidence over the last 100 years (d) does Shirley McKie deserve her settlement or not - if she does, then why has it taken so long? (e) if she had not been a policewoman with powerful allies, but had been a 'neddy' type (of the sort more usually ensnared by fingerprint evidence) would she have achieved the settlement at all? (f) who, other than folk who've died in the meantime, is to blame for this fiasco?
posted by almax | 2/08/2006 01:46:00 pm
2 Comments:
This story particularly interests me because, purely by chance, I was at the High Court in Glasgow for another case when Shirley McKie's trial started. I sat in and watched it for an hour, and of course at the time I was mystified by the fact that she was proceeding to trial. She was obviously guilty. Wasn't she?? The fingerprint evidence was incontrovertible. Wasn't it?
It just is nowhere near good enough to say that an 'honest mistake' was made. The language used by fingerprint experts from elsewhere in the world includes things like "the SCRO has poisoned the entire criminal justice system worldwide".
Scotland simply has to address this - regrettably we don't appear to have the right calibre of personnel to do so.
These are the letters in today's (9 Feb) Herald, which I think properly indicate the level of public disquiet :-
Good luck to Shirley McKie. No amount of money will compensate her for the trauma she and her family have been through but at least she should have no more financial concerns.
Much criticism has been heaped on the Scottish Executive, and rightly so, as this settlement could have been made years ago. But, unfortunately, this is par for the course when dealing with the "establishment" in any way, shape or form. What starts out as "an honest mistake" quickly becomes a dishonest cover-up. Misinformation and half-truths quickly become lies, in the scramble to cover backs and abdicate responsibility for anything.
At least Miss McKie was able to bring her persecutors into court. Some of us have not been so lucky, particularly in the area of false accusation of sexual abuse, where the law on duty of care to third parties makes some members of the establishment untouchable, no matter how many lies they tell, no matter how many "honest mistakes" they make and no matter how stupid or incompetent they are.
There should be a public inquiry into the McKie case because there is something intrinsically evil about a system that is prepared to destroy individuals and their families rather than admit a mistake has been made.
Hers is not the only injustice that should be addressed. Five people who were arrested in the debacle of the Western Isles child-abuse case were totally innocent of all charges, but their names are still in the public domain charged with obscene sexual offences.
Of the nine people originally charged, the authorities claim only four were guilty; but in refusing to name the guilty parties, they have stigmatised the innocent. Those responsible cannot be called to account because they are untouchable and even when there is ample evidence of negligence, followed by cover-up, more often than not early retirement is the preferred solution. So all parties are satisfied, except the falsely accused.
Those MSPs whose concern about the justice system in Scotland has been fuelled by the McKie case are way behind the times. This form of injustice has a long pedigree in Scotland.
Jim Fairlie, Woodstock, Ferntower Road, Crieff.
Will there be an apology for 'honest mistake'?
At last Shirley McKie's wait is over. She has been awarded what appears to be a grand sum of £750,000 in an out-of-court settlement on the basis that an "honest mistake was made in good faith". How very convenient for, and no doubt on the insistence of, the executive, responsible for the Scottish Criminal Record Office. At least it saves the young lady the trauma of appearing at court once again to reiterate the truth that she and her father have championed all these years. Will the SCRO officers who made this "honest mistake in good faith" now admit their mistake and offer publicly an apology to Shirley? Only then could full closure in this matter be accomplished. It has been rumoured until recently that members of the SCRO still are of the opinion that they had made no mistake.
Robert McLaughlin, 77 Braemar Court, Hazelden Gardens, Glasgow.
Many congratulations to Shirley McKie, her family and all those who have stood with her against the most blatant official cover-up in history. Nobody can now be in any doubt that the case brought against her was false.
There must now be a full public inquiry so that the relevant elements in the Scottish police force, Crown Prosecution Service and, most especially, the SCRO are held to account for their appalling behaviour, criminal incompetence and spitefully ignorant vindictiveness towards a woman who dared to stand up to them.
There must also be a re-examination of every case in which the SCRO has been involved in fingerprint evidence. It must be carried out by an agency that can tell one fingerprint from another, which criteria would appear to exclude the SCRO. Otherwise, there can be no confidence that justice has been done in any of them.
Stuart Morrison, 55 Hughenden Lane, Glasgow.
In the light of the settlement in the Shirley McKie case, one wonders how many times she and her father, who also served in the police, brought charges based upon the evidence of fingerprints. Should all of these people now be released or compensated as Ms McKie and her father no longer believe in the accuracy of fingerprint evidence, although they were happy enough to do so when it suited them?
C Crawford, Milverton Avenue, Bearsden.
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