‘At least we gave you some hope’

SYMPATHY FOR A KILLER PAGES 6&7

JOE and his family were in despair after the Crown’s bungled bid to put Auld on trial again ended in failure in February last year.

But they say that Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland soon made them feel even worse.

The family’s letter to Wolfe reveals that Mulholland spoke to them within an hour of the appeal court throwing out the case, and told them: “At least we gave you four years of hope.”

Mulholland has admitted that the failure to put Auld back in the dock is his greatest regret from his time as Scotland’s top prosecutor.

The Duffys tell his successor in their letter: “Within an hour of the double jeopardy application being refused we met with the previous Lord Advocate, who had the audacity to state that ‘At least we gave you four years of hope.’”

The family say they tackled Mulholland at the meeting about the Crown’s failure to make the new DNA hair evidence against Auld a central part of the double jeopardy case.

He insisted the evidence wasn’t “new”, but only “better”.

Mulholland told of his sorrow at letting Auld slip through the net when he stood down from the Crown Office last year.

He admitted: “Francis Auld was the biggest disappointment of my time as Lord Advocate.”

Despite the judges’ criticism of the Crown’s case – and the family’s belief it had been bungled, Mulholland added: “We thought it the right thing to do to present all the evidence to the court.”

And he went on: “I’m sure my successor will keep his or her eye on the ball big time.” Those hopes were dashed by Auld’s death.

Mulholland was strongly criticised after the Glasgow bin lorry tragedy of 2014 for his refusal to prosecute driver Harry Clarke.

A fatal accident inquiry revealed Clarke repeatedly lied to employers and doctors about his history of fainting episodes before his blackout at the wheel of the bin lorry resulted in the deaths of six people. But Mulholland ruled he was guilty of no crime because he hadn’t known he was going to faint on that day.