Posted by Iain McKie on January 24, 2000 at 05:56:31:
The light at the end of the tunnel becomes a little brighter.
Your Internet discussions and two TV programmes have promoted a great deal of interest in Shirley's case. The contributions by Pat Wertheim and David Grieve, for the US, and Ray Broadstock, Ron Cook, Frank Williams and Frank Reed, for the UK, were massively important. The fight is by no means over however!!
You will notice the first public comment from the UK by Mr Allan Bayle on this board. I feel this is an important open recognition from the UK that something requires to be done. We hope others will follow his lead.
Shirley’s MSP’s (Members of the Scottish Parliament), Mike Russell and Phil Gallie, continue to exert pressure on Scotland's Minister for Justice and the Lord Advocate to order an enquiry. This site is now being examined regularly by the decision-makers. Let’s hear it for the Internet!
BBC Scotland is covering the developing story under 'Frontline' . There are full transcripts from the 'Frontline Scotland' documentary and other information related to the case.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotlandnews
Scroll down and click on ‘BBC Scotland investigations Frontline Scotland.’
The programme transcripts show how Shirley was bullied and harassed by the Police and the prosecution system over a period of three years. She was interviewed by 11 senior police and prosecution officers all trying to get her to tell the ‘truth’ or say that she was ‘crazy’ and couldn’t remember what she did. She was psychologically pressured month after month. Mis-information was leaked to the media about Shirley and Pat Wertheim and she had discipline papers served on her just before the murder trial.
As Shirley, a highly trained and qualified detective, tried to get back to work by cleaning out stalls in the Police stables and coming off her medication, three police officers arrived at her home early one morning and arrested her. Two female officers watched her go to the toilet and watched her shower and dress. They took her to Ayr Police office. (Where I had worked and where she knew many of the officers.) She was paraded round the office and held by the arms at the ‘charge bar’. She was then given an ‘intimate body search’ during which her breasts and private parts were touched and she was taken to Glasgow and put in a cell for hours.
This campaign of intimidation and bullying continued. Fellow officers were advised not to contact her. She was isolated and ostracised. This is all a matter of public record in the trial transcript.
This treatment comes as a direct result of serious failures by four SCRO fingerprint experts - Charles Stewart, Hugh McPherson, Fiona McBride and Anthony McKenna . Chief Superintendent Harry Bell has been responsible for most of the statements issued by SCRO and he is their supervisor and head of SCRO.
A number of you have agreed the Fingerprint Profession has a role to play in policing its own and can see that this case is in danger of harming the integrity of fingerprinting. We hope that individual fingerprint ‘experts’ and their appropriate Fingerprint Societies, will approach the powers that be in Scotland with comment and request a review.
It is ironic that three years ago, or any time since, a simple acknowledgement of a mistake, an apology and re-medial action to ensure it never happened again would have halted the whole sorry process in its tracks. The responsibility for what has happened, is happening, and will happen lies firmly at the feet of the System of Prosecution in Scotland - The Minister for Justice, the Lord Advocate, The Chief Constable of Strathclyde and SCRO
Addresses: Rt. Hon. the Lord Hardie,
The Lord Advocate,
The Scottish Parliament. Edinburgh EH99 1SP
Mr Jim Wallace QC, MP, MSP. Minister for Justice,
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh EH99 1SP
If any of you are motivated to make contact please address e-mails to - sp.info@scottish.parliament.uk -for the attention of one or both of these gentlemen.
We must not under-estimate the covert pressure that is being brought to bear to continue the cover-up. So much is at stake. To date £500,000 of public money has been wasted on issues surrounding Shirley’s case. In calling for an open and independent enquiry we realise that we threaten to destroy what little credibility SCRO have left and open much of their previous work to re-examination.
We can hardly grasp the level of interest the Internet sites has generated and appreciate the work of Ed German and SCAFO in maintaining them. Your comments have sustained and encouraged us in our fight for an open and independent enquiry. I hope I will be reporting on one very soon.
Although we still hope that reason and common-sense will prevail we are prepared to fight on through the civil courts if necessary.
I hope my contributions are pertinent. Hopefully they show the human side of the fingerprint ‘experts’ work and how it impacts on an individual and her family on the other side of the world. Until your support arrived we felt lonely and vulnerable human beings. In an important way your profession has ensured my daughters life and freedom. ‘Experts’ were responsible for taking her to the edge of the precipice and now ‘experts’ have helped pull her back to safety. Our hope now is that no other individual is threatened with the incompetence of 'experts' like those identified within SCRO and the stubbornness of a Scottish System of Justice which appears to have lost its way.