Call for change in law after World's End case

Published on Wednesday 30 July 2008 22:19

PROSECUTORS will be allowed to challenge a judge's decision to halt a trial due to lack of evidence, under proposals published today.

The Scottish Law Commission's report says the Crown should no longer be barred from appealing against a "no case to answer" ruling at the end of the prosecution case during the most serious trials.

The move follows the collapse last year of the World's End trial, when the judge, Lord Clarke, ruled the Crown had failed to present enough evidence to convict Angus Sinclair, who had been accused of murdering 17-year-olds Christine Eadie and Helen Scott 30 years ago.

That was followed by an unprecedented public defence of the Crown's handling of the case by Elish Angiolini, the Lord Advocate, who told MSPs she would have appealed Lord Clarke's decision to throw out the case if that right had been available to her.

The collapse of the case was met with disbelief and anger from the dead girls' families and police, who believed they had enough evidence for a conviction.

Last November, Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, instructed the Scottish Law Commission to carry out a wide-ranging review into issues relating to the case, including the rights of appeal when judges decide to end a case without the jury delivering a verdict.

The commission's chairman, Lord Drummond Young, said the lack of appeal rights for the Crown in such circumstances could lead to miscarriages of justice.

"The trial judge rightly has the power to bring the prosecution to an end where the Crown does not present sufficient evidence against the accused; but, at present, the trial judge's decision cannot be reviewed," he said.

"In rare cases, this may result in a well-founded prosecution being wrongly dismissed and the accused person not being properly held to account.

"We recommend, therefore, that the Crown should be able, with leave of the trial judge, to challenge a number of judicial rulings, including a ruling that there is no case to answer."

The commission was also asked to consider the ban on suspects being tried twice for the same crime – known as double jeopardy – and it plans to report its recommendations on this next year.

Mr MacAskill welcomed the report, which sets out a draft bill to change the law.

"We are now giving careful consideration to the details of the report and its proposals for legislation," he said.

"The Scottish Government commissioned this report because a number of concerns have been expressed about these issues, not least following the World's End case.

"We took action quickly by asking the Scottish Law Commission to consider all the questions in their broad context and make any recommendations for reform as they see fit. We asked the SLC to respond swiftly, and they have done so."