Scottish Parliament election

On a serious note

• Brian Taylor
• 13 Sep 07, 05:10 PM

I’ve heard Holyrood raucous. I’ve witnessed it dull. Today I watched from the media gallery as the chamber’s mood was sombre, serious and reflective. With good reason.

MSPs listened in utter silence as the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini set out in great and gruesome detail the background to the collapse of the World’s End double murder trial.

In sum, she supported the advocate depute Alan MacKay. She explained the inevitably circumstantial nature of the evidence.

She said that any evidence withheld was excluded on the basis of a “reasoned decision” by the advocate depute, based on the relative weight of that evidence and the overall conduct of the case.

She argued finally that independent Crown counsel must be free to pursue cases without fear of public vilification if those cases fail to result in conviction.

She added: “Armchair commentators, however eminent, are just that.”

It was a potent defence of the Crown, well delivered and commendably thorough.

I offer no comment on the case either way. Not my role - and I wasn’t in court.

But I was intrigued by Elish Angiolini’s broader analysis, in response to questions from opposition MSPs, notably Labour’s Margaret Curran.

The Lord Advocate was asked about whether there might be a right of appeal for the Crown in such cases.

She said she had supported such a concept in advice to Scotland’s justice ministry- while stressing that action on this would be a matter for parliament, not her as the head of the prosecution service.

She also stressed this advice had been delivered “some weeks ago - that is, it was not explicitly linked to the World’s End trial.

Mind you, she did indicate that - hypothetically - she might well have invoked such a right to appeal in the collapsed trial, had it existed.

Earlier, the first minister had suggested in response to Annabel Goldie that an enhanced Crown right of appeal might be an avenue to consider, perhaps instead of abolishing the “double jeopardy” rule which, in Scotland, prevents a retrial where there has been an acquittal.

It would seem, in short, that there is a Criminal Justice Bill in the making - to add to the 11 in last week’s programme for government.

PS: Labour are a little miffed - I stress, only a little in the wider scheme of things - that the answer from Alex Salmond on double jeopardy was delivered to Annabel Goldie.
Labour sources say the first minister had blanked Cathy Jamieson on precisely the same topic when she posed the question minutes before the Tory leader got to her feet.