Police probe ‘paltry’

THE prosecution of a DJ accused of posing as a serial killer has been hampered by a half-hearted police investigation, a court has heard.

Perth Sheriff Court was told part of the probe into Steven Rose had been “paltry” and prosecutors had to step in.

Rose, 43, of Forth Avenue, Paisley, is alleged to have posed as infamous serial killer Jeffrey Franklin to torment his lover in Auchterarder during a year-long period of extreme controlling and violent behaviour.

He allegedly sent his partner a package “from” Franklin who, with a hatchet, sledgehammer and knife, killed his mother and father and seriously injured several of his siblings in Alabama in 1998.

Fiscal depute Michael Sweeney told the court the complainer had given the police a USB stick which “contained thousands of messages from over the period of the libel”.

He said: “The police went through the USB and then submitted a paltry amount of evidence from that – about eight pages.

“After that I undertook to get the USB and it was passed to a colleague who then spent three days going through all of the messages.”

Sheriff Mark Stewart said: “So, the problem here is caused by the police not doing their jobs properly?”

Mr Sweeney hesitated before replying: “Yes.”

The sheriff said: “The police – as investigating authority – were given a task to do and it appears that didn’t happen properly.”

Sheriff Stewart said: “There has been a lot of time wasted.

“I think we need to make some progress.

“I think the Crown have to get a grip of it.

“Somebody at a senior level has to do something about it.”

Jeffery Franklin.