Murder trial stalls over undisclosed statements
25 Oct 06
Judge attacks "serious deficiencies" in Crown Office practice
A High Court judge ordered an investigation into Crown Office practice after being informed that the Crown had failed to carry out an order to disclose all statements in a murder case to the defence team.
Lord Hardie even warned that he was considering a possible contempt of court by the new Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini QC, but yesterday after hearing a full explanation from Brian McConnachie QC, the senior advocate depute, he refrained from taking such a step.
The judge made the order three months ago, requiring the Crown to hand over all statements to the accused's lawyers within 24 hours. However it was revealed last week that 12 statements had not been passed on and that the Crown had no system of checking whether there had been full compliance with its disclosure policy.
Explaining the omissions before Lord Hardie yesterday, Mr McConnachie said that the failure was accidental. Three statements had not been sent due to clerical error within the police, three had been received but not entered into the computer system, and the remaining six had for some unknown reason not been printed.
Lord Hardie said that the case highlighted "serious deficiencies" in practice and that he knew of similar cases pending. He demanded more rigorous enforcement of procedures to prevent delay and waste of resources.
The trial was temporarily deserted, but the accused, who cannot be named, was remanded in custody pending fresh proceedings.