Craig’s family deserve answers

A young father going about his business, on his way to visit a friend one evening, was killed in a completely unprovoked attack just minutes from his home in Paisley.

He was killed by a man who had no right to be roaming the streets that night. A man convicted of knife offences who had broken his electronic tag and breached the terms of his Home Detention Curfew. A man who was unlawfully at large and had been for five months at the time of the murder.

Craig’s death is a tragedy. His family have been devastated and his three children will now grow up without their father. His death also represents a tragic failure of the system, raising huge questions about how this could have been allowed to happen. That is why the circumstances leading to this awful murder must be the subject of a full, independent inquiry.

Inspectors have only conducted process reviews into the Prison Service and the police in the wake of the killing. Those reviews confirmed that there had been failings in this case. However, because they are process reviews they only tell us so much about the failings and the circumstances that led to this murder.

As has been well reported in the Paisley Daily Express, Craig’s family believe that only a full, independent inquiry will help ensure lessons are properly learned and help them find the answers they need. Not just answers about what happened, but why? For example – why was someone who could go on to commit a murder out on a tag in the first place?

So far the family’s calls for an independent inquiry have been blocked. The Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf rejected an inquiry before Christmas. Craig’s father, Michael, has now written to the Lord Advocate, Scotland’s most senior law officer, asking him to use his powers to instruct that a Fatal Accident Inquiry now takes place.

Four out of the five parties represented in the Scottish Parliament now back an inquiry of some kind, but not yet the Scottish Government.

Bereaved families shouldn’t have to plead to ministers for action. In circumstances like this, an independent inquiry should be automatic.

There would be no question of an inquiry being ordered if a prisoner were to cause a death behind bars. Why not if a prisoner is on a Home Detention Curfew or on the run?

Our community in Paisley is now rallying round. Craig’s family have launched an online petition calling for an inquiry, which gathered over 3,000 signatures in just a few days. They are not only demanding that there is an inquiry in this case, but that the law is changed to ensure there is an independent inquiry into every case of this kind, whenever a death is caused by a prisoner on a Home Detention Curfew.

The Management of Offenders Bill is currently going through the Scottish Parliament. The purpose of that Bill is to improve the way offenders are dealt with and whole sections of that Bill deal specifically with the issue of electronic tags and home detention curfews.

I plan to amend the Bill to ensure independent inquiries are automatic into cases like Craig’s. Lessons have to be learned from this tragedy. Only then can the public have confidence in the Home Detention Curfew system. Only then can we have confidence that the Scottish Government are acting to prevent what happened to Craig from happening to anyone else. But unless the family of Craig McClelland have confidence, none of us can.

I hope that Paisley’s MSPs of all parties will support Craig’s family in trying to ensure that an inquiry takes place. If not, I hope they are ready to explain why.

 You can support the family’s campaign f at: you.38degrees.org.uk/ petitions/murder-of-craigmcclelland-independentinquiry-should-be-a-legalright