Drugs trial watchdogs drop police cheat probe
Heroin conviction inquiry ends
Watchdogs have dropped an investigation into claims a senior police officer forged paperwork which helped convict a drug dealer.
The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission (SCCRC) probed Gerald Lafferty jnr’s case after he was jailed for trafficking heroin.
It had been claimed by a whistleblower that assistant chief constable John Neilson tampered with documents following a raid on his home.
Off icers swooped on Laf ferty’s property hoping to f ind his father, also Gerald, who was wanted for a multimillion-pound bank robbery.
However, they discovered a large quant it y of the Class A drug, amphetamine and cannabis instead.
A former officer claimed the operation had been unlawful because the correct forms had not been signed prior to the search in East Kilbride.
He said Neilson, who was a Hamiltonbased superintendent at the time, only completed doctored documents before Lafferty’s High Court trial to prevent his legal team exposing the loophole.
But SCCRC investigators, who examine miscarriage of justice claims, have ended their inquiry into the trial in Edinburgh in 2003.
It is understood the case was discussed at the Glasgow- based organsation’s recent board meeting at the end of October.
The Crown Office decided prosecutors
would not pursue a case against Neilson, who has now retired, last year.
The former Strathclyde Police force leader, who headed the response to the Glasgow Airport terrorist attack in 2007, has always denied any wrongdoing.
Lafferty jnr died in 2016 from heart problems, aged 49.
Laf fer t y snr, who died in 2008, was wanted in connection with a violent bank robbery in 1991.
He f led while awaiting trial at the High Court in Airdrie in 1992 and detectives spent more than a decade trying to locate him in England and Ireland.
A friend who had previously called for his conviction to be investigated said: “His family weren’t interested in going into the conviction. They said it was all history.”
An SCCRC spokesman said: “I can confirm that we are not reviewing the conviction of Mr Gerald Lafferty.”
I can confirm that we are not reviewing the conviction of Mr Gerald Lafferty