Man walks free after collapse of child sex trial
31 Oct 07
Crown Office blamed for wrongly worded charges in Alloa case
Scotland's prosecution service has been criticised following the collapse of a trial because of wrongly-worded charges.
Hamish Paterson of Alloa had been accused of acting indecently towards five girls aged between 12 and 15 over a period of 15 months. He pled not guilty.
However, the trial was halted yesterday when Sheriff Maxwell Hendry said the charges put forward by Crown Office were incompetent because they did not mention the relevant legislation. All five girls had given evidence during the five-day trial at Stirling Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Hendry told Paterson he found him to be not guilty, as a matter of law rather than a matter of fact because the charges had not named the Act of Parliament he had supposedly contravened.
Bill Aitken, the Scottish Conservatives' justice spokesman, said the sheriff had been perfectly correct, but that action taken at the start of the case would have removed the need for the girls to give distressing evidence.