YOU COULD DELIVER P.O. JUSTICE - TOMORROW
But Lord Advocate accused of snubbing proposal
LORD Advocate Dorothy Bain is coming under pressure to invoke powers that could immediately quash the convictions of subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal.
Retired sheriff Kevin Drummond KC said Bain could take the steps now to overturn all the wrongful convictions. He said: “There is no reason why the Lord Advocate can’t present a petition to the criminal appeal court tomorrow with the cases she has decided a re Hor i zon cases. And invite the court to overturn each of these.. . on the basis of f lawed evidence. It’s no more complicated than that.”
Around 100 Scots subpostmasters have been convicted of stealing money due to faults with the Post Office’s computer system.
At the moment each has to take their case to the appeal court in an expensive process that can take years.
SNP MSP Fergus Ewing asked Bain to meet with him and Drummond to discuss the proposal but she refused,
I had expected, at the very least, a fair hearing FERGUS EWING ON BID FOR TALKS WITH BAIN
saying it was not a “suitable way forward”.
She opposes mass exonerations because of the risk guilty individuals could benefit.
Ewing said: “Following discussions with Kevin Drummond KC and other senior lawyers I wrote to the
Lord Advocate requesting a meeting to discuss this proposal. She pointedly refused.”
He added: “When I wrote to her about the greatest injustice of our times, and in an effort to be helpful in showing how Scotland could complete the vital process of exoneration of innocent victims, I had expected at the very least a fair hearing.” The
Crown Office was asked why the Lord Advocate had rejected the idea and why she believed the current method to quash convictions was still the best.
A spokeswoman said: “COPFS is determined to ensure all miscarriages of justice resulting from unreliable Horizon evidence are overturned, and is utilising the available and viable processes to achieve resolutions.”