Senior prosecutor is appointed to lead role in national sex crime unit

A SENIOR prosecutor has been appointed by the Lord Advocate as head of the National Sexual Crimes Unit (NSCU).

Advocate depute Gillian Wade officially takes up her post today, following the appointment by the Rt Hon Frank Mulholland QC.

The NSCU, which is based at the Crown Office in Edinburgh, is a specialist unit set up to investigate and prosecute Scotland's most serious sex crimes.

Launched in 2009, the unit is made up of a team of specialist crown counsel, who direct criminal investigations from the earliest stages, providing advice to procurators fiscal on how best to take the cases to court.

It undertakes cases including rape, sexual abuse, images which show child sex abuse, sexually motivated murder and people trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Ms Wade joined the NSCU team at its inception in June 2009 and became the deputy head of the unit in June the following year.

She was recommended for her position by the outgoing head of the unit, Derek Ogg.

Senior advocate depute Alison Di Rollo will become deputy.

Mr Mulholland said: "Gillian Wade is the ideal candidate to continue the substantial progress in the prosecution of sexual offences that we have seen in Scotland in recent years."