Youth justice in Scotland

There will be a Youth Justice in Scotland, one day conference on
 11th September 2015 at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.

" 'Preventing Offending', the Scottish Government's youth justice strategy, was published in June 2015, while the Criminal Justice Bill is returning to the Scottish Parliament for Stage 2 consideration. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is expected to raise youth justice issues in its next report into UK compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child."

"Chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini and Sheriff Alistair Duff, the Scottish Child Law Centre's conference pulls together these threads, setting them alongside current issues and the most up to date research and practice contributions..."

http://www.togetherscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/events/detail/?event=335

Dame Elish Angiolini obtained a non-harassment order against child abuse campaigner, Robert Green, in a civil court case and is now pursuing him for court costs whilst questions remain about her use of the public purse for a private civil action. Both Angiolini and her solicitor have an interesting past.

The former Lord Advocate's solicitor, Peter Watson of Levy & McRae, was later suspended by Scotland`s top judge, Lord Brian Gill, because of his links to the "collapsed £400 Heather Capital hedge fund probe and multi million pound claim against the law firm."

http://scottishlaw.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/hedge-fund-judge-suspended-sheriff.html

"Levy McRae are well known for a `colourful` list of clients, including shamed former Glasgow City Council boss and cocaine addict Steven Purcell and former Lord Advocate, now Dame Elish Angiolini who took on Ley McRae to sue anti abuse campaigner Robert Green. Levy McRae proceeded to threaten several media outlets and journalists over their reporting of the case... Levy McRae are also known to work for clients in the well known tax dodging haven of the Cayman Islands."

http://scottishlaw.blogspot.com/search/label/Elish%20AngioliniFormer . 

Going further back there is the `Magic Circle` affair:

 

"Legal insiders, now aware of the recurring media interest in the scandal aim to lift the lid on just why several of Scotland’s most senior judges & law officers escaped prosecution for a series of activities which included "drugging young males", "kidnapping young male residents of care homes for sexual activity" and "perverting the course of justice".

"Senior judges, prosecutors and solicitors, some of whom are still serving in Scotland’s legal establishment today were accused by Police of running a child sex ring for their own pleasure. However, no one from the legal world ever faced justice for their activities, partly because attempts at prosecuting many of those involved failed, after what Police insiders claimed at the time was a deliberate policy by the Crown Office to throw the cases. Only one high profile resignation was ever reported, that of the then Lord Dervaird, who is now a high profile member of the Scottish Government backed Scottish Arbitration Centre."

"A recent closer inspection of some of those working at the Crown Office at the time of the Magic Circle affair, reveals some well known celebrities of Scotland’s legal world, revealed in reports in the UK Column : "Towards the end of March 1991 – and as a direct consequence of ‘Operation Planet’, and prosecutions relating to acts of sodomy upon teenage boys – an internal study paper was produced by The Crown Office that sought to establish a rationale for, and the extent to which, the protections offered by Common Law could be circumvented, and statute law ignored. The author of that paper was the (then) Senior Legal Assistant at The Crown Office, Elish McPhilomy (now Elish Angiolini)." 

"Given Dame Elish Angiolini’s role in the online debate over the Crown Office refusal to prosecute senior members of the legal establishment who are alleged to be implicated in the abuse of vulnerable children across Scotland, and particularly in the long running case of downs syndrome victim Hollie Greig , the UK Column have published an excellent report on Operation Planet and its recurring effect today in what must be one of Scotland’s most shocking uses of the justice system against an abuse victim, her family and their campaigner Robert Green ... who was recently jailed for a year, simply for handing out leaflets on the case." [It has been reported elsewhere that the leaflets did not leave his bag, but there were successes on other occasions. See video below.]

"Scottish Law Reporter recently published an investigation into the knighthood of Angiolini, apparently recommended by the Scottish Government.  Dame Elish Angiolini was also appointed Ministerial complaints adviser to Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond. More recently, Dame Elish Angiolini was also appointed to the post of Principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford."

http://scottishlaw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/elish-mcphilomy-angiolinis-magic-circle.html

And now she is to chair a conference on `Youth Justice in Scotland.`

What chance is there for justice in Scotland ?