Proposed changes would abolish double jeopardy

Published on Sunday 22 November 2009 22:12

CHANGES that would allow people to be tried twice for the same offence have been welcomed, amid reports that a new prosecution could be brought in a notorious murder case.

Prosecutors are understood to be preparing fresh charges against convicted serial killer Angus Sinclair for the World's End pub killings in Edinburgh in 1977. The case will be brought in the wake of expected changes to the law that will see the double jeopardy rule abolished in Scots courts.

At present, no-one can be tried more than once for the same offence, and it is thought the Scottish Law Commission is set to recommend that the rule be scrapped, as it has been in England.

John Lamont, the Conservative spokesman for community safety, welcomed the move. He said: "In recent years, forensic technology has advanced to such an extent that material not formally useable as evidence could now be pivotal. In those few cases where new evidence enables the delivery of justice to a killer or other serious offenders and solace to a family, it is a change well worth making."