Witches should be pardoned, says top QC

WITCHES should be pardoned following the decision to formally forgive miners, Scotland’s top QC has said.

Roddy Dunlop, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, said the case for pardoning witches was ‘stronger’ than the argument for pardoning miners.

It was announced on Wednesday that hundreds of Scottish miners who were convicted of lesser offences during the 1980s national strike will be pardoned.

Campaigners welcomed the decision, which came 35 years after the protest against mass mine closures ended.

On Twitter, Mr Dunlop wrote: ‘The case for pardons for witches is surely stronger. The miners were convicted of actual offences.

‘One cannot actually be guilty of witchcraft. We should not be allowing convictions for something that could never have been committed.’

Witch hunts were carried out from the mid-16th to the early 18th century and resulted in about 2,500 people – mostly women – being executed.

Almost 300 years after the Witchcraft Act was repealed, a campaign has been launched for a pardon for those convicted, an apology to all those accused and a national memorial to be created.