MSP joins Bill’s quest to get at truth
BY JANE HAMILTON Crime Reporter THE case of an ex-Army officer wrongly given a criminal record by police has been raised with Scotland’s justice minister.
Bill Johnstone has spent years trying to find out how his name and date of birth were added to police computers as an alias of a violent criminal.
The ex-Royal Artillery officer, 62, believes a rogue detective did it after he complained about a botched investigation into a fire at his garage business in Hyndland, Glasgow.
Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr has now written to Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf to call for an inquiry by an outside police force.
Kerr said of Bill: “He rightly asserts that if this could happen to him, it could happen to any of us.”
Bill’s garage burned down in 2009 after a row with a customer. He complained about CID’s handling of the case, then suffered a three-year vendetta.
He reported dozens of crimes, including threats to himself and his family, fire attacks and vandalism of cars. No one was prosecuted.
In 2011, police stopped Bill and told him he was wanted for failing to appear in court. They finally admitted in 2015 that his details were put on the computer as an alias for a crook with a record of police assault. Police have said it was an error by a civilian employee.
Kerr told Yousaf that Bill and his family had suffered “devastation” because of their ordeal. He added: “Central is the failure of Police Scotland to provide Mr Johnstone with a satisfactory explanation about how this happened.
“I would be interested in your views around the wider concerns raised by Mr Johnstone’s case.”
The Scottish Government said it would respond to the letter in due course.