MINISTERS and top justice officials were warned five years ago by police of "cover-up and criminality" in the case of a Scottish detective falsely accused of perjury.
Scotland on Sunday has obtained a previously secret report which confirms in shocking detail that fingerprint experts tried to cover up blunders over the case of Shirley McKie.
The 43-year-old former Strathclyde officer was awarded 750,000 compensation last week in an out-of-court settlement following a nine-year battle to clear her name. First Minister Jack McConnell claimed in parliament it had been an "honest mistake".
But we reveal today that in a report into the case, Jim Mackay, the then deputy chief constable of Tayside Police, told the Crown Office in October 2000: "There was criminality involved in the actings of the SCRO [Scottish Criminal Records Office] experts and that... criminality first reared its head in February 1997."
He added: "It should have been patently obvious... a mistake had been made and there were opportunities... for the mistake to be acknowledged. The fact that it was not... led to 'cover-up' and criminality."
Despite Mackay's crystal-clear warning of criminal conduct at the SCRO - which is directly accountable to Scottish ministers - neither the Crown Office nor the Scottish Executive took action against those responsible.
Last night, the McKie case erupted into a major political row. Opposition politicians and legal experts demanded to know how the Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, and the then justice minister, Jim Wallace, could have remained unaware of the Mackay report or failed to act on it.
Questions were also asked about how McConnell could have insisted in parliament last week that an "honest mistake" had been made.
The scandal began in February 1997 when McKie was accused of unauthorised presence at a murder scene after SCRO officers claimed to have found her left thumbprint on a door-frame at a Kilmarnock house. McKie denied the allegation and was later charged with perjury.
She was cleared at her trial in 1999 after an American fingerprint expert, Pat Wertheim, gave evidence that the print could not have been hers.
The SCRO continued to deny a mistake had been made. McKie's civil case for compensation was due to start last Tuesday, but the Scottish Executive settled at the last minute.
Scotland on Sunday's investigation has also revealed:
Pat Wertheim was about to give devastating evidence for McKie that the SCRO tampered with images of her fingerprints in an effort to strengthen their case. Wertheim claims the images were electronically blurred and cropped to improve the likeness. Wertheim told Scotland on Sunday: "That is the smoking gun that tells me they knew this was an erroneous identification. This had to be done intentionally."
The SCRO officers implicated in the scandal are not only still working for the organisation, but have been placed in roles where they supervise the work of other fingerprint experts.
The organisation continues to make serious errors. A charge of robbery against a man in Ayrshire had to be dropped two years ago after independent fingerprint experts and Northern Ireland police told the SCRO they had misidentified a print on a glass.
Shirley McKie, who has suffered depression following her ordeal at the hands of the Scottish justice system, said: "I am totally disgusted by these revelations. The thought that government ministers could be part of a cover-up beggars belief. There must be a public inquiry looking into people at the highest level. The Lord Advocate must be called to account for this."
Her father, Iain, a former policeman who has campaigned ceaselessly on his daughter's behalf, said: "It is becoming clearer and clearer by the minute that this was far from an honest mistake and the fact that our First Minister should stand up in the Scottish Parliament and say so is unbelievable."
Alex Neil, the Nationalist MSP, who has campaigned for years on the case, said: "It is clear from the Mackay report that the Lord Advocate has got no option but to resign. If he doesn't resign then there will be a motion of no confidence placed in the Parliament calling for him to do so. But the other big question is did Jack McConnell know? If he did, then his position is totally unsustainable as well."
Mike Russell, the former MSP who has battled for the McKie family since their ordeal began, said: "We now know that Shirley McKie's nightmare should have ended years earlier.
"For every day she has to suffer there needs to be an explanation, and it is now certain that the explanation is one of carelessness, incompetence and dereliction of duty at the highest level that shames Scotland."
Robert Black, professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University, said: "I find it inconceivable that after the Crown commissioned this report that the Lord Advocate would not have seen it."
The Mackay report was ordered by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMCIC) in June 2000. In August that year, four fingerprint experts were suspended.
The next month, the Crown Office ordered an extension of the inquiry to other fingerprint anomalies in the case. On October 20, Mackay's completed report was submitted to the Crown Office and HMCIC.
A Scottish Executive spokesman said matters arising from the inquiry were a matter for the Crown Office.
A spokesman for the Crown Office said: "In light of the Mackay report, Crown counsel instructed the regional procurator fiscal of North Strathclyde to carry out an independent investigation.
"On receipt of that report, Crown counsel gave careful consideration to all the material, including the Mackay report, and concluded there was insufficient reliable evidence to found a prosecution."