Lord Advocate offers hope on road to justice
Eight years ago Allan Marshall was a terrified young man. He suffered a psychotic episode and was restrained violently by 13 prison officers for 45 minutes.
Evidence disappeared and, at a fatal accident inquiry, a sheriff accused those officers of being “mutually dishonest”.
Despite CCTV footage exposing brutality, all the officers were given immunity from prosecution and no one faced criminal charges.
The question is: How many more have died in similar circumstances?
For years the Scottish Prison Service has operated in a culture of impunity and secrecy, comforted in the knowledge that their unholy trinity with Police Scotland and Crown Office will ensure they escape prosecution.
Like Allan’s loved ones, every family – including those of Katie Allan, William Lindsay, Callum Inglis, Darren Brownlie and so many more – have been promised a robust and transparent investigation but instead those left behind have to fight in what has become a cynical and cruel game.
Many would have thought the CCTV revealed by the Sunday Mail would have been enough but the mantra of the Crown Office always is “the case is complex” – code for knock it in to the long grass until the pressure dies.
Years pass by, perpetrators retire, selfcongratulatory reviews conducted by a handpicked gravy train of experts are published. Governement ministers say “lessons will learned” but the final result is no prosecutions, no matter how damning the evidence.
Families are told an
FAI will find out what happened yet shamefully they are asked to agree to officers being given immunity to testify.
In the case of Sheku Bayoh’s death in police custody, and the public inquiry, a number of police officers stated they would refuse to appear unless an undertaking was granted that their evidence would not be used against them in any potential prosecution.
The Bayoh family were successful in robustly opposing the granting of such immunity.
For those who wear a uniform to demand immunity before any inquiry that owes its existence to struggles fought by families is a shameful insult not only to them but to all who genuinely regard themselves as “guardians of law and order”. If officers have nothing to hide, then they have nothing to fear from speaking up without caveats.
It is testimony to the perseverance of the Marshall family that they did not give up.
It has taken a new Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain QC, to offer a glimmer of hope on a long road ahead. But she should not forget that the Crown Office she took control of was an institution mired in accusations of arrogance and incompetence, and accused far too often by families of betraying the word “justice”.
No family should have to rely on their own efforts to make sure the full facts about such deaths are established and those responsible are held to account.