Composer’s ‘Gaddafi’ court claim

SCOTTISH composer James MacMillan has suggested deposed Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi would receive a fairer trial in Scotland than any Catholic does.

In an interview with Scotland on Sunday following the not-proven verdict in the trial of John Wilson, a Hearts fan accused of assaulting Celtic’s manager Neil Lennon, a Northern Irish Catholic, Macmillan said he was “baffled” by last month’s decision. “And also embarrassed that Scotland is yet again an international laughing stock over this issue,” he said.

He added: “But another side of me wasn’t surprised at all. Juries are simply a cross-section of society, after all, and this is Scotland. Of course Lennon wasn’t going to receive justice. When they capture him, perhaps Gaddafi could request that he is tried in a court in central Scotland. On previous experience he could do worse, and he has a lot going for him, in that he isn’t a Catholic of Irish heritage.”

MacMillan, from Ayrshire, has long campaigned against alleged anti-Catholic bias. His comments came as the Scottish parliament is debating new laws on sectarianism.

But Paul McBride QC, who has represented Celtic and along with other high-profile fans was sent a parcel bomb in April, said: “It was just a bad verdict on a bad day. The idea that a Catholic can never be acquitted in front of any jury in Scotland is just preposterous.”

Wilson, 26, was jailed for eight months for breach of the peace and banned from football for five years for the incident, seen on TV when Hearts played Celtic on 11 May.