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Wednesday 22 May 2019

Prosecution failures in Scotland

[UK Column News 10 May 2019]

"This is the Times here: `..Child abuse inquiry to look at Crown Office `failings`. Is it really going to do that?" asks Mike Robinson, "Or ... is that just another throw away headline?"

"That`s an excellent question," is David Scott`s response.  "... Now there have certainly been Crown Office failings... `The Crown Office is organised crime` is a phrase that keeps coming up. The Crown Office... are the only means of any prosecution in Scotland. All prosecutions go through the Crown Office; therefore anything that`s not prosecuted, [that is] held up, [is the responsibility of] the Crown Office; it`s a completely obscure organisation."

"We don`t have any access. It`s all confidential. We don`t know what`s happening in there and of the cases that the police investigate, that are considered to have a good prospect of successful conviction, forty percent of those are decided by the Crown Office to not be cases they want to take forward, and never see the light of day in a court room. Forty percent is in this discard pile. So there are many things about the Crown Office that are very worrying."

"Now there are also many things about the official inquiry that are very worrying."

From the article: 

"The official inquiry into historical child abuse in Scotland is expected to investigate alleged failures by prosecutors to protect vulnerable children in care."

"The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service admitted that it was likely to be the focus of future investigation by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry."

"Officials conceded that the body may have been `deficient` in the past. `It is anticipated that future stages of the inquiry will require the institutions charged with the investigation and prosecution of crime to face up, candidly and critically, to the practices and policies of years gone by` a spokesman said."  

Remarking on the statement, `The officials conceded that the body may have been deficient in the past,` David Scott added: "Notice it is always in the past," and further on in response to `It... will require the institution charged with the investigation and prosecution of crime to face up candidly and critically to the practices and policies of years gone by, he commented: "Again always painted as `it`s perfect now, but it wasn`t then`. And there`s no explanation as to how this miraculous change ever happened."
 
The article goes on:

"It comes after John Halley, a lawyer appointed to the inquiry, suggested that vulnerable young people in care were being let down raising his concerns about child trafficking through prostitution of children in care in a report sent to Lady Smith, the inquiry`s chairwoman. Mr Halley cited several cases that never came to court despite evidence of trafficking and sexual abuse of children in care,` the Sunday Times reported. `Some victims were linked to senior figures within the legal establishment... And Mr Halley said `I will not be complicit nor tolerate cover-up and failure to report or investigate systemic failures."

In addition, David Scott informs listeners and viewers that Mr Halley put the following statement on twitter: 


"I have been absent from work since 28 October 2016. On 10 October 2016, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. On 31 October 2016, I underwent a right hemicolectomy in surgery lasting some 4 hours at Borders General Hospital, Scotland. Between 6 December 2016 and June 2017, I underwent 8 cycles of chemotherapy. I have been unable to return to work since then."

"Prior to and after my diagnosis of cancer, I have held appointment as Lead Junior Counsel to the SCAI [Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry]. On 1 April 2019, I submitted a detailed `Note` running to in excess of 17,500 words, on Child Trafficking Through Prostitution of Children in Care in Scotland to Lady Smith, Chair of the SCAI. By letter dated 15 April 2019, Julie-Anne Jamieson, SCAI Secretary, informed me that Lady Smith has decided that the Note is comprised of material that I ought not to have been working on. I refute that entirely. I was instructed and I did investigate and report. The Note sets out a summary of my remit, important facts, allegations, inferences and sources for investigation by the SCAI. It is clear to me that Lady Smith has decided that the SCAI will not investigate the material detailed in the Note."

"Since 1 September 2016, I have had to suffer disability discrimination, harassment and victimisation by Lady Smith. I will deal with that in an application to the Employment Tribunal when I am well enough. However, I will not be complicit in, nor tolerate cover-up and failure to report or to investigate systemic failures, including prosecution policy failures, which appear to have perpetrated injustice on vulnerable young people in care in Scotland. I will not permit the serious allegations, detailed in my Note, of past child exploitation, and failures to report suspicions of child exploitation, by lawyers, judges, public figures and others, to be ignored."

"I have today reported by Note to Mr Graham Fraser, Procurator Fiscal for Scottish Borders Area. I understand that the Procurator Fiscal will report the Note and its content directly to the Lord Advocate if, having considered its content, he is satisfied of the duty to do so. I have felt compelled to immediately report the Note to the Procurator Fiscal in the public interest. However this is spun the facts remain."

"In order to ensure necessary safeguarding of our children going forward, Scotland and our survivors of child abuse require the truth."

Returning to David Scott, he remarks: "So Lady Smith has been asked to investigate the Procurator Fiscal Service because the Procurator Fiscal Service has let down the survivors of child sexual abuse."

"Meanwhile the Procurator Fiscal Service has been asked to investigate a case where Lady Smith has let down the survivors of child sexual abuse. And out of this we hope for truth and justice."

"It does not look good."
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-9NPzoKYuA

 
For more cover-ups, see UK Column`s article HERE which refers to the tape which Lady Smith refused to release to now deceased child abuse campaigner Robert Green.

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