Top Scots lawyer arrested after probe into paedophile sex ring
QC faces extradition from US over claims he abused four children more than 40 years ago
A TOP lawyer has been arrested as part of an investigation into an alleged paedophile ring at the heart of the Scottish legal establishment.
The former QC has been detained by police in the United States, where he now lives.
The 70-year-old is being held in custody ahead of an extradition hearing that will determine whether he can be returned to Scotland to face charges of abusing four children.
The arrest follows a long-running investigation by police into claims that a network of paedophiles was operating within the Scottish legal system in the 1970s and 80s.
A Police Scotland inquiry was sparked in 2014 when Susan Henderson made a series of allegations against some of the country’s most prominent lawyers. As well as describing how she had been repeatedly raped as a child by her father Robert Henderson, a highprofile QC, she claimed that she had been abused by a number of his friends – including former senior prosecutor and government Minister Sir Nicholas Fairbairn.
Today The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that the arrested man, who we cannot name for legal reasons, is one of those she accused.
He worked as a prosecutor in Scotland in the 1990s. At the request of the Crown Office – his former employer – he was arrested at his
US home on July 8. At a bail hearing he was judged to be a flight risk and was denied his freedom.
He has been detained in custody ever since and is due to appear at an extradition hearing next month.
Paperwork from the US courts reveals the charges he would face if he is returned to Scotland. He is accused of lewd and libidinous practices against four children, as well as a charge of rape.
Ms Henderson waived her legal right to anonymity. Court documents state that the alleged offences against her happened when she was between the ages of seven and 12.
The lawyer is also accused of sex attacks against three other alleged child victims, two female and one male. One girl was between six and nine at the time of the alleged offence, and the other was between the ages of nine and 12. The boy was eight to ten at the time of an alleged assault. They are all said to have taken place between 1973 and 1987.
Mother-of-one Ms Henderson, a 53-year-old carer who lives in the north of Scotland, learned last year that the Crown would seek the QC’s extradition and welcomed the news.
At the time, she said: ‘I am grateful to the investigation team involved in my case since 2014 for the thoroughness and compassion they have shown.
‘It is an enormous relief to know my story has been placed under rigorous scrutiny and that I have been believed.
‘In relation to one retired QC who is still alive, but living abroad, they have initiated extradition proceedings. This involves sending details of my allegations and the evidence gathered by the police to the authorities there to enable them to make a decision on whether he should be extradited to face trial.
‘Given that other victims have come forward, I am hopeful he will be prosecuted.’
Last night, Ms Henderson said she did not want to make any further comment until the case concludes. At a bail hearing in the US this month, a judge denied the application after hearing some of the evidence in the case.
Court records state it was argued: ‘The court should detain X without bond because he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.
‘X has a strong incentive to flee from the United States or to an underground location in the United States given his current age (70) and the potential lifetime punishment he is facing in the United Kingdom.
‘Additionally, given the serious nature of the sexual abuse and rape offences with which X is charged, the community both here in the United States and abroad would be at risk if he were to be released from custody.’ Police Scotland and the Crown Office began to prepare for the extradition request more than a year ago.
A sheriff granted an order for the man’s arrest in May last year, and the British Embassy filed a formal request for extradition proceedings to begin five months later, in October. If the request is successful – a hearing begins next month – then it
‘It is an enormous relief that I have been believed’
could lead in time to a landmark trial here.
Last year we revealed that police investigating Ms Henderson’s allegations had found evidence backing her claims of a paedophile ring. Detectives told her they had found evidence against five men – all now dead – that would have been enough to bring charges.
Officers said they were confident that, if he had still been alive, they would have been able to bring a criminal case against her father, who died in 2012 at the age of 75.
They also said they had enough evidence to prosecute Fairbairn, who died, aged 61, in 1995, as well as Sheriff Andrew Lothian, QC, and the advocates Raymond Fraser and Lawrence Nisbet.
Fairbairn was a former Conservative MP and solicitor general, Scotland’s second most senior prosecutor.
Lothian died at the age of 74 in 2016. He was forced to quit in 2008 after it emerged that he had paid prostitutes to spank him. He was an alcoholic and was exposed as a wife-beater by this newspaper in 2001, but the Crown refused to prosecute.
Fraser, also an alcoholic, died of cancer in 2002, aged 55, while Nisbet died in 1993, aged 45.
The Crown Office yesterday confirmed the extradition case was active but offered no further comment.