Support grows for inquiry into dad’s death

Opposition politicians have joined forces to back the family of a murdered Paisley father- of- three who are seeking answers to “legitimate and series questions” surrounding his killing.

The family of Craig McClelland insist there should be a inquiry into the circumstances of his death in July last year.

The 31- year- old was stabbed to death in his home town by James Wright, who had previously been released from prison on an electronic tag, and at the time of killing was “unlawfully at large”.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described his murder as “awful” and said she was not surprised the family is still seeking answers.

While both police and prison inspectors carried out reviews of systems following the incident, the family said these failed to fully explain why his killer was out on the streets.

Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr, his Labour counterpart Daniel Johnson and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie all met Mr McClelland’s partner Stacey and his father Michael.

The three politicians then sent a joint letter to Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf, calling for a fully independent inquiry to be conducted into the circumstances of the killing.

They told him: “We welcome your personal commitment to ensuring lessons will be learned but it is impossible for this to be done until there is full transparency about what occurred.

“There is no such transparency at present.”

The politicians added “something clearly went wrong” within the system to allow for Wright to be free to commit the murder, and said it was “incumbent” on the Justice Secretary to establish what this was.

They said: “We urge you to immediately order a full independent inquiry. Without this, nobody can be assured that the solutions proposed will stop such an appalling series of events happening again.”

Mr Yousaf said: “While nothing can take away the grief of the McClelland family, the Scottish Government will continue to do all we can to support the family to ensure that lessons are learned. I will reply to the letter as soon as possible, and will be meeting the family again shortly.”