Judges' concern at police warrant failures
23 Dec 04
Woman in racial abuse case escapes sentence after year's delay
Strathclyde Police were heavily criticised in the criminal appeal court yesterday after their failure to execute an arrest warrant led to a woman escaping a prison sentence.
Jean Waugh was sentenced to five months at Glasgow Sheriff Court in June 2003 for a racially-aggravated breach of the peace, and for assaulting another woman with a knife to her severe injury. She was released on interim liberation after lodging an appeal against sentence.
Leave to appeal was ultimately refused in September 2003 and the Crown Office sent the warrant to the police for execution. Due to administrative error it was not forwarded to the appropriate division for nine and a half months. There was then what the Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill, who chaired the appeal court, described as "a further chapter of inefficiency" before it was given to a newly-formed warrants squad in September 2004.
At about that time Waugh began proceedings to suspend the warrant. The Crown did not oppose the petition and the court agreed that Waugh had been subjected to a "seemingly unreasonable and oppressive delay".
Lord Gill said that Strathclyde Police had failed to learn from a similar case in 2002. "This court again finds that by reason of a serious administrative failure, a just and lawful sentence will not be served by the offender. This is an unsatisfactory result. It erodes public confidence in the administration of justice."
He continued: "It troubles us to think that even more cases like this may be lurking in their files. The advocate-depute could give us no reassurance on the point. It is essential that Strathclyde Police should have effective systems in place to prevent further mishaps of this kind. We hope that the chief constable will give the problem his immediate attention."
The court's opinion can be read online at www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/389_04.html