Truth is the first victim when tragedy strikes Scots abroad
AS SOMEONE who has always loved travelling, I found comfort in that little passport in my pocket declaring me a British citizen.
It gave me rights, I thought, protection. A key to unlock help, if I needed it, far from home.
It would have been naive to assume our man in God knows where would arrive in his linen suit to save the day – but there would be help, surely.
However, as the deaths of two Scottish citizens, Kirsty Maxwell and Craig Mallon, have shown, there is no passport to justice abroad.
Craig, 26, of Coatbridge, died from a single punch from an unknown attacker during his brother’s stag do in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava in May 2012.
Newlywed Kirsty, 27, from Livingston, died after falling from a 10th floor apartment in Benidorm during a pal’s hen do in April 2017.
They were young people with a bright future ahead, enjoying a break in Spain, not some war zone or third world country.
They were European citizens which, we would assume, afforded them additional rights both in life and in death. It didn’t.
The investigations by the Spanish into their deaths have been shambolic, sick, Keystone cops farces that, had they the humility, the country’s authorities would be embarrassed by.
Potential crime scenes contaminated, vital evidence lost, witnesses not interviewed and the most basic investigative protocols breached.
Miss Marple could have done a better job, without leaving the house.
And so their families are left to drown in grief and frustration, treated by the Spanish like buzzing mosquitoes to be swatted and swept aside.
Craig and Kirsty’s families have been forced to enlist Scottish former detective David Swindle to investigate their deaths independently.
But the loss of evidence in the golden hours of the inquiry left him facing a Herculean task.
There is an added disparity for Scottish families whose loved ones die abroad.
In England and Wales, the coroner would be obliged by law to hold an inquest, could request a second post-mortem and police reports from abroad.
But this does not happen in Scotland.
Allegations have surfaced that Scots hotel worker Julie Pearson, 38, was beaten to death in Israel in 2015.
But although her body had 78 bruises up to seven inches wide, a post-mortem in the country concluded she died of natural causes.
A leading pathologist, Dr Stuart Hamilton, has said her death should have been treated as a homicide and a second post-mortem could have provided crucial evidence.
Two years ago, the Scottish Government changed the law to allow the Crown Office to instruct a post-mortem for unexpected overseas deaths – but it is not routine.
Kirsty’s family had to organise their own second post-mortem.
The cause and investigations into Julie, Kirsty and Craig’s deaths were accepted without any liaison from Police Scotland, the Crown Office or Scottish Government with the Spanish authorities.
How many more Scottish citizens have died abroad without their cases being given the scrutiny they deserved? There is no formalised structure in place to support Scottish citizens to navigate their way through a justice system abroad, with consuls failing to even provide basic translation services.
English police will provide family liaison officers but their Scottish counterparts don’t.
It took Kirsty’s family two days to even find out which morgue her body was in.
Losing a child is a parent’s worst torment. Not knowing why is torturous.
In the interests of them and justice, the truth should not be abandoned to a foreign land.