Judge who quit in legal gay sex ring scandal dies

A DISGRACED judge who quit amid a gay sex scandal that plunged the Scottish justice system into crisis has died, aged 80.

Lord Dervaird was mired in claims of a ‘magic circle’ homosexual conspiracy involving boys, allegedly centring on a cottage he owned in Wigtownshire.

The scandal ended his judicial career 25 years ago but he became a professor of company law at edinburgh university.

his death comes two months after the official launch of the Scottish Government’s public inquiry into historic institutional child abuse, which is expected to uncover up to 21,000 victims.

It is possible the ‘magic circle’ allegations will figure during the inquiry, which coincides with a police probe into historic claims of a paedophile ring at the highest levels of the legal world.

Lord Dervaird, a married father of three, died at edinburgh’s Western General hospital last week. An expert in civil law, Lord Dervaird was the only son of a Stranraer farmer.

his career on the bench ended when he quit for ‘personal reasons’ in 1990. A legal figure told newspaper editors at an unattributable briefing Lord Dervaird was one of three judges questioned about homosexual allegations. A 1993 Crown office investigation into the magic circle allegations found them baseless.