Tory leader calls for not proven verdict in Scots law to be axed

Scotland’s “damaging and confusing” not proven verdict must be scrapped, the Scottish Conservative leader has said.

Douglas Ross said that many people who had “suffered the horror of serious crime” had then gone on to have their “pain compounded” by this verdic t – which results in the accused being able to walk free.

Scotland is the only part of the UK where juries can return three verdicts at the end of a trial – guilty, not guilty or not proven.

Mr Ross said the controversial not proven verdict “serves no purpose in a modern justice system”.

The Scottish Tories will include a pledge to abolish the verdict in their manifesto for next year ’s Holyrood elections.

The move has been backed by Joe Duffy, the father of murdered teenager Amanda Duffy, who was killed in 1992.

Francis Auld was tried for the murder of the 19-year-old but was acquitted after the jury found the case against him not proven.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “I have made it very clear that reform of the threev e r d i c t system must be g iven ser ious c o n s i d e r a t i o n , particularly due to the confusion caused to some jurors by having two acquittal verdicts.”