Confusion in Scotland over "most wanted" list

Police and Crown Office deny failure to co-operate as website goes live

News, 18 November 2005

Confusion yesterday surrounded the prospects of Scotland's most wanted criminal suspects appearing on a new UK website dedicated to tacking down the nation's most serious offenders.

The Crimestoppers website, which lists Britain's top 10 criminals, attracted over 200,000 hits in the first two hours after it went live and crashed for the rest of the day. The site is currently live again at http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/wanted/ .

Michelle Harris of the Crimestoppers Trust said there were no Scottish suspects on the site yet because Scottish police forces had not yet signed up to it due to differences in the Scottish legal system.

The Crown Office is generally reluctant to allow the police to issue photographs of suspects for fear of prejudice to any subsequent trial.

Crown Office however said the matter was one for the police; a spokesman for the chief police officers' association referred the issue to Crimestoppers; and Crimestoppers said that it was up to individual forces to issue information for the website.

Opposition politicians said that anything that helped track down wanted criminals should be supported.