Shirley McKie receives official apology

[Kasey Wertheim]

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/crim ... 1323882991

Forensic service chiefs have made a public apology to a former police officer falsely accused of leaving her fingerprint at a murder scene.

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Tom Nelson, director of forensic services at the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA), said the organisation had apologised directly to Shirley McKie and her family for the "errors that took place" and the "subsequent pain" it had caused them.

Mr Nelson issued the apology after a public inquiry into the affair found that Ms McKie, a former detective constable with Strathclyde Police, had not made the disputed mark.

But the inquiry, chaired by former Northern Ireland appeal court judge Sir Anthony Campbell, said there was "no conspiracy against Ms McKie in Strathclyde Police".

He said it was "human error" that fingerprint experts had identified the print as hers.

Mr Nelson said: "As an organisation, we accept the findings of the inquiry and we expect all of our staff members to do the same. We accept that Shirley McKie did not make the mark known as Y7. We have today apologised directly to the McKie family for the errors that took place in the late 1990s and for the subsequent pain that has caused them."

The inquiry was set up to examine what steps were taken to identify and verify the prints involved in the case against Ms McKie who was accused of perjury for insisting that a fingerprint found at the home of murder victim Marion Ross did not belong to her.

The former officer, from Troon in Ayrshire, was later cleared of lying under oath and in February 2006 was given �750,000 in an out-of-court settlement with the then Scottish Executive.

[Big Wullie]

What a let off for SCRO Now SPSA.

How the enquiry could ignore the McKay Report when he said criminality was involved I have no idea.

How can they say these experts were simply Incompetent I have no idea.

These so called experts have denied any wrongdoing for years saying their Identifications were correct but now this has been demolished where does it leave fingerprint evidence if as Lord Campbell has said it is not an exact science but someone's opinion.

Does the person with the most money get the better expert to testify on his behalf ?

If they cannot get it right with a 16 point standard then how do they expect the public to be happy with three or four points of similarity.

Arie Zeelenberg hit the nail on the head when he said a Rhino is not an Elephant even if it takes a 66 degree turn to the left.

Well done Arie your view is well appreciated.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-16181875

Shirley Exonerated:

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-centra ... -released/

It also transpired that Peter Swann has been involved in other wrongful convictions and particularly Susan May's.

Peter Swann overstepped his mark in this case when he confirmed that her print was in her Aunties blood despite all tests to date concluding they could not confirm the substance was blood let alone Hilda Marchbank's blood.

Susan may's case can be read here:

http://www.susanmay.co.uk/index2.htm

http://www.susanmay.co.uk/index.htm