NEW CRIMINAL RIGHTS FARCE

Identities of on-the-run crooks being kept secret – as police claim they are protected ‘by data laws’

THE identities of Scottish criminals who are on the run from justice are being kept secret from the public.

Police refuse to reveal who the missing offenders are as they say naming them would breach laws on ‘personal data’.

The shocking decision last night sparked fresh concerns about the culture of secrecy in Scotland.

Police Scotland also refused to disclose where the 46 criminals – who are unlawfully at large after breaching ‘soft-touch’ home curfews – were living before going on the run.

Critics last night condemned the decision, saying criminals who go on the run do not deserve to have their identity protected – and pointing out that the public could help police track them down.

It comes weeks after the Scottish Daily Mail launched a campaign aimed at exposing the culture of secrecy dominating every area of public life – bankrolled by the taxpayer.

Earlier this year, James Wright was jailed for life for murdering father-of-three Craig McLelland after breaching a Home Detention Curfew for an earlier knife offence.

The case sparked a public outcry and led to

calls for a fundamental overhaul of the justice system to prevent a repeat.

Despite the outrage over Wright killing after breaching his curfew, police refused to reveal the identity of the offenders who are ‘unlawfully at large’ after going on the run in exactly the same way he did.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘These are convicted criminals who are essentially on the run, and frankly don’t deserve to have their identity disguised. If anything, revealing their names could lead to the public helping to track them down and returning them to justice.

‘This is yet another poor reflection on the culture of secrecy that’s encouraged by the SNP Government throughout public life.

‘Revealing these identities would clearly be in the public interest, and Police Scotland should think again about this decision.’

In June, the Scottish Daily Mail revealed 46 criminals had breached home detention curfews and were ‘unlawfully at large’.

Of them, 22 had been on the run for five years or more, including two who breached their curfews more than a decade ago.

In a Freedom of Information request, the Mail asked Police Scotland to provide the names of all the criminals unlawfully at large and to confirm where they were serving their home detention curfew.

But despite confirming it holds the information, the force said it had applied an exemption relating to ‘personal data’.

The Mail challenged this, pointing out that there is a public interest in the release of the information because the public could help police track down the offenders.

However, following a review, Police Scotland said: ‘A person who requests informa- tion from a Scottish public authority which holds it is entitled to be given it by the authority. This right is not absolute and in some cases, information is exempt from disclosure.

‘Exemption exists and excludes information which can be defined as personal data or special category data which is covered by GDPR (the European Union’s new data protection law introduced this year) and the Data Protection Act 2018.’

The police have on occasion enlisted the public's help to trace criminals. In July they appealed for information regarding the whereabouts of 24-year-old Mark Thomson, after officers attempted to trace him in Johnstone, Renfrewshire.

This year it emerged that, out of all home detention curfews, only 76 per cent have been successfully completed. Of the remainder, 20 per cent have been breached and 4 per cent were ‘technical breaches’.

Officials also confirmed that, of the one in five cases which were breached, 4.7 per cent of offenders committed a further crime.

The case of Wright was raised at Holyrood in June. The 25-year-old, who had 16 previous convictions, including two for knife crimes, had been released early from prison on a Home Detention Curfew.

He murdered 31-year-old Mr McClelland at random, and his heartbroken partner told Wright’s trial his young children had been left ‘in pain, sobbing, crying’.

At the time, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘There are clearly issues with monitoring which the SNP Government needs to get on top of as a matter of urgency. Until it does, its plan to further empty prisons must be put on hold.’

Responding, Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘Such cases, appalling though they are, do not mean the whole system is not working.’

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