CLPEX Chat Board

Shirley McKie update

New Suspect revealed in Marion Ross murder case.

Sensational claims have been made in the Sun Newspaper that it has obtained secret police documents showing that in February 1997, before David Asbury was arrested for the murder of Marion Ross, the murder team had a suspect called Patrick Docherty.

Docherty was not arrested and went on a few years later to murder another elderly lady a few miles from Marion Ross’s home.

http://www.shirleymckie.com/ (Breaking News 25 February)

Top judge joins move for a public enquiry

Today one of Scotland’s top legal authorities Lord McCluskey entered the controversy surrounding the Shirley McKie affair.

"Justice in such a case cannot be done in secrecy: the transparency of the justice process is fundamental."
"If I were a judge having to give directions to a jury about how they might approach disputed fingerprint evidence, I would have great difficulty in knowing what to say.”
"This whole sorry episode has so entered the public consciousness that it cannot be simply swept under the carpet."

http://www.shirleymckie.com/ (Breaking News 25 February)

Two debates took place in the Scottish Parlaiment last week into the fingerprint's scandal.

Statements were made by the Lord Advocate and Justice Minister and a 45 minute debate followed.

To watch this debate go to:

http://www.shirleymckie.com/ (Breaking News 26.2.06)

Remember Shirley's new video messsage of thanks to her supporters can be found on the home page.

This Sunday, the newspapers in Scotland seem even more focused on the demand for an inquiry than in past weeks. New facts are being dug out and exposed by reporters. Three of the most revealing articles are these:

The full report of the Mackay Robertson inquiry, previously kept "top secret" by the government, was obtained by the Scotsman and reported:
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/po ... =296132006

The Times revealed that early on, a whistleblower inside SCRO was also trying to force an inquiry and bring about change, but was ignored:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 97,00.html

The Sunday Herald has discovered that a man was actually bragging in local pubs about killing Marion Ross before David Asbury was arrested or Shirley McKie's fingerprint was erroneously identified. He was never investigated and went on to kill another old lady only a few miles from Marion Ross' house a few years later. Was he the real killer of Marion Ross?
http://www.sundayherald.com/54328

The most baffling thing is that the SCRO "experts" still claim that they are right and every other fingerprint examiner in the world is wrong, except for Peter Swann (Shirley McKie's first defense "expert") still thinks it was her fingerprint, too. The SCRO "experts," with Fiona McBride as their spokeswoman, are whining that they have not been allowed to tell their story. The FACT of the matter is that they were asked to tell their side to the Mackay/Robertson inquiry, but they showed up with their lawyers and refused to answer questions or give handwriting samples.

So the big question remains -- Will the Scottish Ministers ever come around to holding a full-blown judicial inquiry into what happened and who was responsible?

Thanks for the links Pat,

I've read the article about the Mackay report and it uses language that portrays the SCRO experts and their supporter Peter Swann (and by association his supporters) in a very bad light. The position of the Durham experts, their knowledge and subsequent silence doesnt portray them very well either. Within the community of experts in Britain it appears that the fear generated by a rigid, arrogant and obdurate hierachy will require a fresh objective approach to any similar situation such as McKie. We must never say never since the lessons of history havent been adequately learned. The science is still in transition, groaning at times in the painful delivery of a new life. Regards Les