New Lord Advocate should have ‘no role’ in Rangers prosecution cases
The new Lord Advocate should have no role in the ongoing legal challenges or future criminal action brought against the Crown Office around the “malicious prosecution” of Rangers FC administrators, a Scottish Conservative MSP has said.
The call comes as Dorothy Bain QC, announced as the replacement as Lord Advocate for the departing James Wolffe QC last week, was highly critical of Crown Office lawyers involved in the prosecution of David Whitehouse and Paul Clark.
Taxpayers have paid a £24 million compensation bill for the pair after the Crown Office settled a legal claim brought against it last year.
In an affidavit, Ms Bain claimed three lawyers working on behalf of the Crown, advocate depute Jim Keegan QC, Helen Nisbet, deputy head of the serious and organised crime division, and Sally Clark, a senior procurator fiscal, “did not appear to accept the issues of legal privilege”.
The new law officer advised a lawyer, James Clibbon, who was representing Whitehouse, Clark and their law firm Duff & Phelps, succeeding in blocking the seizure of legally privileged documents from the law firm via an unlawful search warrant. Legal privilege protects the confidentiality of correspondence between lawyers and clients in almost all circumstances.
Ms Bain said: “It was apparent that they believed that the rules regarding privilege were different in Scotland. I expressed the view to all present that I considered that their understanding of the law, as set down in correspondence, was incorrect.”
She added: “I concluded that Mr Keegan and Ms Clark had not fully grasped the importance of legal privilege."
The charges against Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark were later dropped by the Crown Office, leading to the compensation claims.
However, Ms Bain’s role in the case has led to calls for her to have no involvement in future or current claims against the Crown Office amid concerns of a potential conflict of interest. Scottish Conservative community safety spokesman Russell Findlay said: “On the basis of her prior involvement, I don’t see how she can have any role in the various ongoing civil claims against the Crown."