Opening of prison mail breached human rights

A man jailed for life for murder had his human rights breached by prison authorities who opened his mail, a judge has ruled.

William Beggs complained that his mail from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office was opened while he was a prisoner in HMP Glenochil, and other confidential mail addressed to him was also opened in HMP Edinburgh.

Beggs’s lawyer argued there was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. In a Court of Session judgment, Lady Stacey ruled that his human rights had been breached, but she made “no finding that anything was done deliberately or maliciously”.