Summary Of The Hollie Greig Case

 The ongoing Hollie Greig case is so complicated that I believe it is worthwhile to recap the key facts.

 In 2000, Hollie, a twenty year old woman with Downs Syndrome, told her mother, Anne, that she had been abused over many years by a paedophile ring in her home town of Aberdeen.

 These allegations were reported to Grampian Police but their "investigation" was extremely limited. They only interviewed 2 members of the alleged ring on one occasion each and failed to interview any of the other 6 children named by Hollie as fellow-victims. There were no searches made at any of the properties where the abuse was alleged to have taken place and no medical experts were asked to assist.

 Shortly after the allegations were made, Anne was forcibly sectioned against her will in Cornhill Psychiatric Hospital in Aberdeen where she was held for 3 days. It is a matter of public record that this sectioning was initiated by Grampian Police. Anne has no history of mental illness and, within a few weeks of her release from Cornhill, she was assessed by an independent psychiatrist who pronounced her perfectly sane.

 In 2005, Hollie was awarded £13,500 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, in spite of the fact that no-one had ever been charged with any offence. The CICA based it's award on evidence from medical experts, including the eminent psychologist Dr Eva Harding who stated unequivocally that Hollie had been sexually abused.

 Anne and Hollie did not regard this payout as a satisfactory conclusion and were determined to see the abusers brought to justice. However they were continually frustrated in their attempts by officialdom and felt as if they were banging their heads against a brick wall.

 In 2009, I began to assist Anne and Hollie and, after encountering the same type of problems when trying to achieve justice through the official channels, I was encouraged when I was approached by the BBC who asked if they could produce a documentary about the case. However this proved to be another disappointment as, after two months working on the programme, the BBC abruptly decided to halt production.

 In October 2009, in an attempt to break the impasse, I named the members of the alleged paedophile ring at a public meeting in Edinburgh. This prompted some limited media coverage in publications including "The Firm" and "UK Column". In December 2009, Scotland's most senior legal official, the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini, issued a warning letter to various media outlets via the Glasgow legal firm Levy & MacRae, asking them not to publicise the case. Mrs Angiolini has declined to answer a Freedom of Information request asking whether she used public funds to pay for this action.

 Early in 2010, I announced my intention to stand as a General Election candidate in an Aberdeen constituency. On February 12th 2010 I visited Aberdeen with the intention of distributing leaflets to launch my campaign. Before I could do this however, I was arrested by plain clothes police officers and charged with Breach of the Peace. I was released subject to bail conditions which prohibited me from entering Aberdeenshire or using the internet and required me to report to my local police station thrice weekly. Such is the complexity of the case that I have been awarded Legal Aid to fund a high calibre legal team led by Frances McMenamin QC. My trial is scheduled to commence on November 14th 2011 and is expected to last for two weeks.