News In Focus
1 August 2006
Leading QC attacked by prisoner
Top Scottish lawyer Paul McBride QC was yesterday attacked in a cell by a convicted rapist immediately before he was due to represent him in court.
Mr McBride, 41, was due to appear for 24-year-old David Callaghan who was facing sentence at Glasgow High Court after being convicted of raping a 31-year-old woman in a flat. The attack happened as he was advising Callaghan of the sentence he was likely to face.
The high-profile defence counsel was taken to Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary with a bloodied nose. He was found to have suffered multiple fractures to his nose, bruising and a graze to his lip.
Security officers said that normal procedures had been followed and that officers on patrol outside the consulting room intervened when they heard a disturbance.
Callaghan's case has been deferred for four weeks. At the time of the rape offence he was out on licence after serving four years of a six-year sentence for assault to the danger of life.
Strathclyde Police are investigating the attack on Mr McBride.