Police Public Apology To McKie's

[Big Wullie]

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/crim ... e.17349594

Stephen House will apologise on behalf of his force, Strathclyde, for the "pain and suffering" it caused to Ms McKie and her father Iain after meeting them last week.

Ms McKie was wrongly accused of leaving her fingerprint at a murder scene, but fully exonerated by a public inquiry that concluded in December.

She was tried for perjury in 1998 after insisting a fingerprint found in the home of murder victim Marion Ross in 1997 did not belong to her.

Ms McKie was later cleared of lying under oath and, in February 2006, was given £750,000 by the then Scottish Executive in an out-of-court settlement.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ordered the public inquiry, saying the controversy had "cast a shadow of uncertainty and suspicion" over the individuals involved and the criminal justice system.

Inquiry chairman Sir Anthony Campbell recommended that fingerprint evidence should be now "recognised as opinion evidence and not fact".

In his report, Sir Anthony said the fingerprint in question, known as mark Y7, had been "misidentified as the fingerprint of Ms McKie".

He put this down to "human error" and said there was "no conspiracy against Ms McKie".

Mr House, who joined the force almost a decade after Ms McKie was arrested, will tell the Strathclyde Police Board today that he hopes lessons will be learned.

His statement will say: "I am satisfied that the report did not find fault in the way in which officers of Strathclyde Police had conducted themselves throughout the course of events that led to the establishment

of the inquiry. However, I do want to inform members that I recently met with Shirley McKie and her father Iain.

"I thought that it was entirely right and proper that I apologised to them for the very lengthy and very public process that they had had to endure, and for the pain and suffering that they have experienced as a result.

"Both were officers in Strathclyde Police and it is my belief that Shirley, in maintaining the truth under such traumatic circumstances, adhered to the highest ideals of the police service; displaying honesty and integrity of a remarkably high manner.

"Both Shirley and Iain appreciated the fact that I had met with them and, like me, they hope that lessons can and will be learned as a result of these events, and that the Campbell Report will have a positive effect on forensics and fingerprint practices here in Scotland."

Iain McKie praised Mr House's integrity and said he and Shirley welcomed the apology.

"This is a fitting end to what has been a traumatic 14 years," he said
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mr House this is not the end there is still an outstanding Murder inquiry which got two fingerprints so badly wrong, How will your force cope with this.

There is still the issue of honest and decent expertssacked because they dared go against SCRO I believe there were at least 12 sacked from the Edinburgh fingerprint Bureau then Aberdeen and Dundee will Mr House now apologise for ruining these experts careers.

All these honest people sacked whilst dishonest experts who stood by these false accusations are still working within SCRO now SPSA and we are to believe there was no conspiracy.

No conspiracy my Erse (Pardon the expression)

[Big Wullie]

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

Shirley McKie receives apology from police chief constable

Stephen House says sorry to the former detective for the 14 years of "pain and suffering" caused by the force.

Strathclyde Police chief constable Stephen House has issued an apology to former detective Shirley McKie for the force’s role in her case.

Mr House met Ms McKie and her father Iain to say sorry for the 14 years of "pain and suffering" she suffered as a result of the case.

She was charged with perjury after denying that a fingerprint found on a doorframe at the scene of the murder of 51-year-old Marion Ross in 1997 was hers.

Ms McKie was cleared of lying under oath, and was handed a £750,000 out-of-court settlement by the Scottish Executive in February 2006.

In 2008 Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill announced a public inquiry, adding that the case had "cast a shadow of uncertainty and suspicion" over those involved and the criminal justice system.

During the inquiry, chairman Sir Anthony Campbell said the fingerprint was "misidentified as the fingerprint of Ms McKie".

The chief constable said: "I thought that it was entirely right and proper that I apologised to them for the very lengthy and very public process that they had to endure and for the pain and suffering that they have experienced as a result.

"Both were officers in Strathclyde Police and it is my belief that Shirley, in maintaining the truth under such traumatic circumstances, adhered to the highest ideals of the Police Service; displaying honesty and integrity of a remarkably high manner.

"Both Shirley and Iain appreciated the fact that I had met with them and, like me, they hope that lessons can and will be learned as a result of these events and that the Campbell Report will have a positive effect on forensics and fingerprint practices here in Scotland.

"Both Shirley and Iain now wish to move on and get on with their lives. I hope that the meeting that I had with them will play a part in allowing them to do so."

[Pat]

So, tell me, Wullie, if the following quote from Mr. House is correct,

(Shirley McKie) adhered to the highest ideals of the police service; displaying honesty and integrity of a remarkably high manner.

What of the Strathclyed Police officers who invented the lie that Shirley left her fingerprint at the scene while having sex with another Strathclyde Police officer, and then called various newspaper reporters they knew and, as "anonymous sources," tried to plant that story in the press to slander Shirley? I was asked about that story by Marcello Mega, one of the reporters who had a police officer contact him, in about 2001. Did those cops also represent the "highest ideals" of the police service? Were any of them ever disciplined? Was there ever even any effort whatsoever put into identifying those officers and dealing with them? Or were they ignored with a wink and a nudge and allowed to keep their jobs and receive honorable retirement penions with medals for distinguished service?

Tell me, Wullie? Did Mr. House address that issue when he spoke of

. . . no conspiracy against Ms McKie.

[Big Wullie]

Pat

While I can accept ther MIGHT have been a mistake originally and there was a need to tag the outstanding print before the trial of Asbury hence the urgent tag to Shirley (Its just a police officer attitiude) I cannot accept their actions were not criminal in the cover ups that followed to which they adhered to all these years.

Their attacks on the McKies credibility when all else failed were just shocking and credit where it is due Shirley has been the only one to remain dignified at all times.

Where is the numpty Daktari now with his vile bile he has spewed here for years attacking the McKies ?

These so called experts still working at SPSA should hang their heads in shame along with all the other numpties that have said Y7 belonged to Shirley McKie.

All the decent and honest hard working experts sacked for daring to go against SCRO should all be heavily compensated now the truth has been accepted by the Police, Justice Minister and Lord Advocate who have all now had the decency to apologise to the McKie's.

What apologies will the Ross family get for the massive FCUK up by these Scottish Police in this murder case ?

I am afraid there will never be any disciplined officers in this case Pat as Anthony Campbell found no conspiracy, I just wonder what book he was reading from when forming this opinion or what evidence he was listening to at the hearing because I have never been a room with so many liars in all my life and believe me I have met some liars in my time (Though not in Barlinnie lol)

I was amazed to hear all these experts say they cannot recall and cannot turn jurors into experts etc etc and singkle handedly destroy the art of fingerprinting throughout the world.

I was even more amazed at the shocking way in which Fiona McBride was waving and shacking her head to Geddes when he was giving evidence and no-one from the judge to all the experts sitting around noticed this apart from us sitting behind them.

In my opinion these people have acted criminally and should face the charges Shirley & Asbury faced.

There is a police officer on trial just now in Edinburgh for withholding evidence from the crown before a murder trial see here:

http://shirleymckie.myfastforum.org/All ... t1098.html

I would suggest the same principles should apply to SCRO (now SPSA) and all those so called experts that claimed Y7 & QI2 were Shirley's and Marion Ross's because without their trumped up evidence there would never have been any trials.

Shockingly some are still working at SPSA and have never accepted they were wrong.

[Iain McKie]

At the risk of repeating myself can I thank all those experts from across the world who supported Shirley over the past 15 years and helped make it possible for this day to arrive.

I was a police officer as was Shirley and her brother Stuart and as a ‘police’ family you will understand how important is was to hear the words ‘sorry’ from the Chief Constable.

It was the police who opened the door to 15 traumatic years and it is appropriate that they should be the ones to close it.

The list of those experts who helped make this day possible is long and it would be invidious to highlight some and not others. I remain confident that those who helped give Shirley back her life know who they are and know they will never be forgotten.

It remains however for the most important question of all to be answered,

‘Who killed Marion Ross’

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home ... e.17357199

When we start to look at this question clarity disappears and the doubts flood in.

There simply wasn’t enough evidence to convict David Asbury and given the findings of the fingerprint inquiry the evidence that there was must now be treated with great scepticism.

Our website shirleymckie.com is headed.

‘This site is dedicated to the memory of Marion Ross who was murdered in her home in January 1997 and who has often been forgotten in the wake of the extraordinary chain of events that followed from her death.’

This remains the case and it is time for the authorities to address this issue in an honest and open way so that the memory of Marion Ross is kept alive and the guilty are tracked down.

[Pat]

There is finally a call to reopen the investigation into the murder of Marion Ross.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home ... e.17357199

Exerpts from the article:

POLICE chiefs are waiting for prosecutors to decide whether a murder case at the centre of the Shirley McKie controversy will be reopened under double jeopardy laws.

Veteran Glasgow Labour councillor, Jim McNally, said: "We've forgotten that Marion Ross was murdered and a person was convicted and then walked free. It would seem the police have no intention of taking further action, and that is a travesty of justice."

But Mr House hit back, claiming: "Marion Ross was murdered and we have not forgotten that. As a result of the fingerprint inquiry I wrote to the Crown Office and asked if it should be reinvestigated. We have very firm views on how that should proceed and would be delighted if we received instructions on how to proceed with that case."

[SConner]

I'm not completely familiar with the particulars of the McKie/Asbury/Ross incident. But reopening the investigation...is/was there ever a thought that there was a suspect other than Asbury or would this be like the LAPD looking for the "real" killer(s) of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman?

[Pat]

It would be more like admitting, "Gee. We did a really bad job of investigation the first time around, including two erroneous identifications to two different people. Maybe we should go back and start over fifteen years too late and pretend we are professional investigators and see if we can figure out who really killed Marion Ross this time."

[Iain McKie]

I'm with Pat on this one.

There were several suspects until the 'fingerprints' turned up when all attention turned on Mr Asbury.

When I recently wrote to the Lord Advocate, who is responsible for the prosecution of crime in Scotland, I made out a case for a review of the investigation.

1. Cold case review of the Marion Ross murder

Any information concerning the state of the murder investigation into the murder of Marion Ross is extremely hard to come by. What has been ascertained however is that two fingerprint mistakes were made in this murder investigation and that one of them was critical to David Asbury’s conviction.

The Inquiry Report lays out the prosecution evidence offered at David Asbury’s trial.

• The unexplained presence of Mr Asbury’s print on the gift tag.

• A 38 seconds delay by Mr Asbury in replying in the negative to the direct
question whether or not he murdered Miss Ross.

• A voluntary statement from Mr Asbury to the effect that he had called at the house of the deceased because his car had broken down and he wanted to call his mother. When he realised he had run out of petrol he had not made the call and after the
deceased had shown him around the house and he had used the toilet he left.”

• The Marion Ross print QI2 recovered from the biscuit tin found in Mr Asbury’s bedroom.

http://www.thefingerprintinquiryscotlan ... ow_res.pdf

It has since been established that the only credible evidence gathered by the police related to the fingerprint on the Christmas tag.

The evidence of the delay in responding to the police and the emphasis placed on his voluntary statement looks extremely weak when countered with research knowledge about the psychological and emotional pressures on accused persons and the dangers of false confessions in voluntary statements.

The inescapable fact is that here we have two fingerprint errors in the one case and once this was discredited it was inevitable that the prosecution fell. That the Lord Advocate decided not to seek a retrial appears significant as is the fact that the appeal judges voiced ‘considerable concern’ over the case.

I have had access to the Police logs kept during the investigation and it is clear to me that there were a number of other suspects in the case until the Asbury print was found on the Christmas tag in the victims home. Once the Asbury print was found these suspects were sidelined.

To my knowledge there has never been an independent review of all the fingerprint and forensic evidence adduced in the case.

Given these facts I believe that you should request that a ‘cold case review’ should be carried out by the Police to re-assess the evidence and ensure that no further lines of enquiry remain to be carried out.

This is how it seems to me and I await a response to a letter I wrote to the Herald newspaper today.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/l ... y.17370340

[Taggart]

Official police apology now on Strathclyde Police website

http://www.strathclyde.police.uk/index. ... docID=9265

Chief Constable Statement - Shirley McKie

The Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, Stephen House QPM, today commented on his recent meeting with former officers, Shirley and Iain McKie.

"On December 14th last year, Sir Anthony Campbell published his report onto what has become known as 'The Shirley McKie Case' or 'The Fingerprint Inquiry.'

"Sir Anthony's report related to matters that took place during the murder of Marion Ross and the identification of a finger printed that was, wrongly, adjudged to belong to Shirley McKie.

"I am satisfied that Sir Anthony's report did not find fault in the way in which Strathclyde Officers had conducted themselves throughout the course of events that led to the establishment of the inquiry.

"However, I did think that it was right and proper for me to meet with Shirley and Iain McKie and for me to apologise to them for the very lengthy and very public process that they had had to endure and for any pain and suffering that they have experienced as a result.

"Both were officers in this force and it is my belief that Shirley, in maintaining the truth under such traumatic circumstances, adhered to the highest ideals of the police service; displaying honesty and integrity of the highest order.

"Both Shirley and Iain appreciated the fact that I had met with them and, like me, they hope that lessons can and will be learned as a result. I believe that everyone wants the Campbell report to have a positive effect on forensics and fingerprint practices here in Scotland and across the UK.

"The McKies now wish to move on and to get on with their lives. I hope that the meeting that I had with them will play a part in allowing them to do so".