Limbs in loch killer is given go-ahead for yet another legal action
LIMBS in the Loch murderer William Beggs has been given the go-ahead to launch another legal action against prison bosses for opening his personal correspondence.
Beggs, who has so far cost the taxpayer £858,000 in legal challenges, claims staff at HMP Edinburgh breached his rights by opening ‘private’ letters between him and the Health Care Professional Council.
The 53-year-old’s legal team argued that in an agreement with prison officials, he had been led to believe official correspondence would be treated as ‘privileged’.
But the killer claims that staff broke that agreement on May 6 last year by reading the mail, breaching article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Scottish Prison Service’s legal team had argued the mail was opened to ensure there were no prohibited items inside.
Beggs has pursued a string of legal actions since he was jailed for life in 2001 after murdering Barry Wallace, 18, and dismembering his body at a house in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, in 1999. He disposed of body parts of the teenager in Loch Lomond and in the sea.
The killer was ordered to serve a minimum 20 years and the term is due to expire in 2019.
Judge Lord Doherty yesterday agreed the killer should be allowed to bring a judicial review to the Court of Session.
But despite allowing Beggs’s legal challenge to continue, Lord Doherty said Beggs’s article eight rights were not breached, and instead allowed the appeal on grounds that Beggs had an ‘expectation’ that the letters would be private, and opening the correspondence had been ‘unlawful’.
In July 2015, judge Lady Stacey ruled prison staff were wrong to open formal letters between the inmate and the Information Commissioner’s Office. In a written judgment Lord Doherty ruled yesterday: ‘I do not think there is a real prospect of the petitioner establishing a violation of article eight. I see no real prospect of the court concluding that the rules do not strike a fair balance between the rights of the individual and the interests of the community.
‘I grant permission for the application to proceed but only upon so far as it is contended that the opening of the HCPC correspondence on May 6, 2016, was unlawful because it was in breach of the petitioner’s legitimate expectation that such correspondence would be treated as privileged.’
Lord Doherty added: ‘In 2016, there were at least four occasions when contraband was smuggled into Scottish Prisons through confidential correspondence. The respondents aver that the petitioner’s correspondence was opened to ensure that there was no prohibited items within it.’
The judicial review is expected to be heard later this year.
‘No prospect of proving violation’