The former Lord Advocate poured a gallon of petrol on the flames
An insolvency expert maliciously prosecuted by the Crown Office has accused former Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland of “pouring petrol on the flames” after he broke his silence on the case. David Whitehouse was awarded more than £10 million in damages after being locked in a cell for six days and wrongly pursued by authorities for months over the deal to buy Rangers from administration in 2012. Current Lord Advocate James Wolffe last year admitted the prosecution of Mr Whitehouse and Duff and Phelps colleague Paul Clark was wrongful and malicious and addressed parliament last week over the cases. MSPS heavily criticised Mr Wolffe’s predecessor, Frank Mulholland, now a High Court judge, over how the prosecution was pursued, but Lord Mulholland responded the claims were “false and scandalous” and that he had been the victim of an “unfounded personal attack”. Speaking to The Sunday Post, Mr Whitehouse described the exchanges as “extraordinary”, saying: “We have seen MSPS accuse the former Lord Advocate, the former Lord Advocate making counter claims, and the current Lord Advocate acknowledging everything needs to be before a public inquiry – but that can’t happen until he deals with civil litigation accusing his organisation of negligence. “The danger is the whole thing spirals out of control. It is totally unedifying and Scotland’s justice system is spiralling further into disrepute. Someone, somewhere, needs to get a grip and sort it out.
“The Crown Office is in crisis and there are questions over the judiciary also, given that Lord Mulholland has broken ranks and given statements on the matter. I thought James Wolffe made a fair attempt at admitting something went very wrong and then Lord Mulholland poured a gallon of petrol on the flames. “My experience was that the Crown Office was ill-equipped to prosecute allegations of serious economic crimes.” A spokeswoman for the Judicial Office said Lord President, Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, had “no comment to make” over Lord Mulholland’s remarks.