Dunblane papers to be made public
29 Sep 05
Lord Advocate lifts 100-year closure order on some of the Cullen inquiry papers
The Lord Advocate Colin Boyd has lifted a 100-year secrecy restriction on papers relating to the Dunblane massacre.
The papers from the subsequent inquiry carried out by Lord Cullen will be available in edited form for members of the public at the National Archives of Scotland from Monday.
Some of the documents will not be published, the Lord Advocate said, because the material they contained would be distressing to relatives of the 16 children and one teacher murdered by Thomas Hamilton at Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996 before he turned the gun on himself.
The Lord Advocate said: "It is clear that there remains considerable public interest in the evidence that was provided to Lord Cullen's inquiry and I am pleased to announce we have now completed the review of the papers subject the 100-year closure order.
"This was always going to be a lengthy process because of the volume of printed documents which had to be carefully and individually examined. All names or other information which would lead to identification of individuals had to be removed from each document to protect the families involved, and to comply with data protection."
In 2003, the Lord Advocate pledged to revise the material under the 100-year order to determine which, if any, of the documents could be released to the public. The closure order remains in place for the specified 100 years in respect of files 1 to 4. These files contain details of the individual victims, including personal profiles, photographs, medical reports and post mortem reports.