Man fails in £60,000 payout bid for being cuffed
A MAN who was jailed in 1996 for his role in a gangland shooting has lost a £60,000 compensation bid against the Scottish Government for an alleged breach of his human rights.
Easdale Campbell, 58, instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh because of what happened to him when he was serving a 20-year sentence for attempted murder.
Campbell, originally of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, was handcuffed by prison guards before he was taken out of jail for hospital appointments, which he believed was a breach of human rights legislation.
So Campbell sued the Scottish ministers in Scotland’s highest civil court in a bid to compensate him for the alleged wrong doing.
Judge Lady Wise yesterday ruled that Campbell’s legal team failed to persuade her that their client’s human rights were breached.
She based her ruling on the fact that Campbell had tried to escape custody and had been violent throughout his life.
In a written judgment issued at the Court of Session, Lady Wise wrote: “The admissions in relation to a history of absconding and violence would appear to me to be sufficient to infer that hand cuffing in the circumstances of this case was in accordance with law and necessary.”
Campbell was one of three men who were jailed for shooting the wrong man at a football match in East Renfrewshire.
They were looking for witnesses at an upcoming murder trial, but shot an unconnected victim who was lucky to survive. EDINBURGH Castle is one of many Scottish landmarks that will be switching its lights off for the World Wide Fund’s Earth Hour to highlight the effects of climate change on people and nature.
Now in its tenth year The Kelpies and Forth Bridge will lead Scotland’s Earth Hour switch-off on March 25 at 8.30pm. Thousands of schools, businesses and individuals have signed up and will be making their Earth Hour matter by attending organised events. Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland, said: “Earth Hour is a great way to encourage people to start thinking about the effects climate change is having close to home, and also further afield.”