1400 accused of serious crimes in Lothian go on run

Published on Thursday 14 May 2009 09:43

MORE than 1,400 criminals accused of crimes including rape, attempted murder, and sexual abuse are on the run and being hunted by police in the Lothians.

The majority of those on the hit list had warrants granted against them after failing to appear in court, with officers now charged with tracking them down.

The number of wanted individuals would be enough to fill Saughton Prison twice over if they were rounded up today.

Some of the more serious offences are believed to involve individuals who went missing after being granted bail during previous court appearances.

Police chiefs say many may have fled the country or are actively evading detection.

The list of outstanding warrants, released to the Evening News under freedom of information laws, showed that 1419 warrants were outstanding in the force area as of Monday.

Five alleged rapists and a total of 175 people facing assault charges, including for attacking a child, leaving alleged victims with "permanent disfigurement or impairment", and sexual assaults, were among those on the loose.

Many cases go back several years, and the figures today sparked renewed criticism over the bail system for freeing people accused of serious offences who later fail to turn up in court or simply disappear.

Councillor Iain Whyte, who is also convener of the Lothian Police Board, said: "The bail system is under pressure because the SNP is seeking to prevent people going into prison and they refuse to build any more. The difficulty of putting people charged with serious offences on bail is that they don't turn up to court and that wastes police time enforcing warrants, to say nothing of the danger of them committing more offences."

Inspector Steven Gibb, from the divisional intelligence unit based at St Leonard's police station, said: "We do receive warrants for petition cases and indictments for more serious offences and those will take priority.

"We get through quite a volume each month, but are always left with about 850 or so outstanding.

The majority are for people failing to appear in court. If we believe they have left the area or the country then we can go to other forces or agencies like Interpol to see if they have turned up elsewhere."

During January in the capital, 384 new warrants were delivered to the force, with only 28 now remaining outstanding.

In February, 299 were issued and 35 are still outstanding, while 310 came through in March with 53 left on the books.

A Scottish government spokesman said: "We propose to increase the penalties available to the courts for those who breach bail or undertaking conditions.

"However, we have strengthened Scotland's bail laws so that anyone facing trial for serious cases of sexual, violent or drug offences who has previously been convicted by a jury of similar crimes may only be bailed in exceptional circumstances."