Vulnerable And Traumatised Witnesses ?

On April 13th of this year I attended Stonehaven Sheriff Court for an intermediate diet. I was forced to represent myself, as at that time my Legal Aid had been withdrawn. I asked the court to delay the trial, which at that time was scheduled to commence in June to allow me time to deal with the Legal Aid issues.

 The Crown, represented by Anne Currie, the Area Procurator Fiscal for Grampian, strongly objected to this and claimed that the trial date should not be altered as they had 50 witnesses scheduled to attend, half of whom were "vulnerable" as they had suffered "trauma" due to my actions.

 On that occasion Sheriff Val Johnston agreed with the Crown's view and the trial date was maintained until the next intermediate diet.

 At the latest intermediate diet which took place on August 18th the Crown, on this occasion represented by a male fiscal whose name I do not know, stated that they had only 18 civilian witness and there was no mention of any trauma they had suffered. The Crown confirmed that no application whatsoever had been made to the Court in relation to any of the vulnerable witnesses referred to by Anne Currie.

 I referred to a medical dictionary which defined "trauma" as:  "A severely disturbing experience that leads to lasting psychological or emotional impairment." I would expect that if anyone had suffered trauma as a result of my actions that they would have claimed damages against me in a civil court case but this has not happened.

 I am at a loss to understand why, in the space of four months, the number of witnesses against me has reduced dramatically and also how those vulnerable witnesses appeared to have recovered from the trauma they were suffering.

 It has been suggested to me that perhaps the Crown exaggerated the case against me at the Intermediate Diet in order to press ahead to a trial at a time when I had no defence team due to the withdrawal of Legal Aid. I will be asking the Crown to provide a full explanation of the comments made in court in April.