QCs who won a ‘stinker’ of an acquittal
ELBOW-BUMpING his client yesterday, Gordon Jackson had every reason to celebrate.
The veteran QC secured acquittals on all charges after presenting a defence case that featured the accused, Alex Salmond, as its key witness.
While describing Mr Salmond as a ‘Marmite man’, he told jurors that Mr Salmond’s conduct may have been inappropriate, but was never criminal.
And he told them in his closing speech on Friday the Crown’s case ‘absolutely stinks’ – suggesting that it was driven by political motivation and ‘revisionism’.
As Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Mr Jackson, 71, is the leader of the Scottish Bar. He was educated at Ardrossan Academy in Ayrshire and studied law at the University of St Andrews in Fife. He became an advocate in 1979 and took silk as a QC in 1990.
Mr Jackson was elected to the Scottish parliament in 1999 to serve the constituency of Glasgow Govan. He was defeated in 2007 by Nicola Sturgeon.
Mr Jackson is one of the most sought-after criminal law advocates in Scotland and has continually topped the charts for being the top legal aid earner.
In 2012, Mr Jackson made more than £400,000 in fees for legal aid.
In November 1998, the QC acted for a dog called Woofie, a collie cross who faced being put to sleep for allegedly biting a postman.
Mr Jackson won a reprieve for the dog and French actress Brigitte Bardot flew into Scotland to lend her support to him during a hearing at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
One of the charges against Mr Salmond was found not proven, a verdict Mr Jackson has previously criticised. The Scottish Government is examining proposals for its abolition.
The QC said: ‘I don’t think the conviction rate would go up if you didn’t have the not proven verdict. I do not see the logic that believes, “If you take away not proven, the jury will say guilty”.’
‘I think that is to treat juries as not really doing the job properly.’
Shelagh McCall, QC, was the cocounsel in the Salmond defence team. She became an advocate in 2000 before taking silk in 2015.
The QC acted as appeals counsel for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She was appointed chair of the law reform and human rights organisation JUSTICE Scotland in 2017.
Mrs McCall recently acted for Thomas Haining, jailed for eight years in October 2019 for shaking his three-week-old child Mikayla to death. He had faced a murder charge but the Crown agreed to accept a plea of guilty to a lesser charge of culpable homicide.
‘Not really doing the job properly’