Kenny MacAskill And "Scottish Values"

 There was yet more embarrassment for "Justice" Secretary Kenny MacAskill this week when Abdelbasat al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was filmed at a rally supporting Colonel Gadaffi in Libya.

 We are approaching the second anniversary of Megrahi's release from prison on "compassionate grounds" a decision which MacAskill described as upholding "Scottish values".

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/kenny-macaskill-in-releasing-the-lockerbie-bomber-we-uphold-scottish-values-1775099.html

 At that time MacAskill indicated that Megrahi had no more than three months to live. No doubt he relied on the best available medical advice and he would claim that he is relying on the best available legal and police advice to justify the failure to investigate either the abuse allegations made by Hollie Greig, or the suspicious death of Roy Greig.

 The truth about the Lockerbie bombing may never be known but it is a fact that Megrahi's release on "compassionate grounds" co-incided with him dropping his appeal against his conviction. Many believe that an appeal trial would have shown that Megrahi was wrongly convicted and would have been a severe embarrassment for the Scottish justice system.

 To paraphrase the "Justice" Secretary: Hollie Greig and other victims of the Scottish justice system cannot be expected to forget, let alone forgive. Their pain runs deep and the wounds remain. However, Mr MacAskill may one day face a sentence imposed by a higher power.



   

Letter to Colin McKerracher

 On 12th February 2010, I was arrested as I was walking towards central Aberdeen where I intended to distribute leaflets about the Hollie Greig case. During the course of a taped interview with two Grampian Police detectives, I supplied them with information about an individual whom I had strong reason to believe may have been involved in the death of Roy Greig on 17th November 1997, which at the time was not regarded as suspicous.

 In the intervening period, Malcolm Webster has been found guilty of murdering his wife in 1994. The circumstances of Mrs Webster's death were very similar to those of Roy Greig's and, once again, Grampian Police did not regard her death as suspicous at the time.

 As I am not aware of any investigations whatsoever being made into the death of Roy Greig, I have written to Colin McKerracher, Chief Constable of Grampian Police, asking him what action he proposes to take in respect of this matter.

 In the same letter, I have asked Mr McKerracher to investigate why the official transcript of my taped interview, which forms part of the evidence to be used in my Breach of the Peace trial, omits the crucial section in which I refer to the death of Roy Greig.

 It is not credible that this could have been omitted by accident and I regard this apparent tampering with evidence as a gravely serious matter.

 I have previously written separately to three senior officials of the Crown Office asking for an explanation of why this section of the interview was omitted from the transcript but all have failed to respond.

Press Reporting Of Paedophilia

 In the aftermath of the closure of the News Of The World, it is worth remembering that they were the only newspaper to give any significant coverage of the Hollie Greig case. On April 19th 2009, James Mulholland wrote an article about the highly unusual payment of £13,500 to Hollie by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority when no-one had been charged with any crime.

 It appears very strange that there has been no further coverage in any national newspaper in spite of all the additional information which has emerged since then. I know for a fact that many, many journalists are very interested in the story and it can only be a matter of time before an editor summons up the courage to publish it.

 The News Of The World generally took a strong stance against paedophilia and campaigned for the introduction of "Sarah's Law" which allowed parents to know if sex offenders were living in their area.

 However, some journalists appear ambivalent to child abuse and a favourite tactic is to attempt to portray anti-paedophile activists as a braying mob of hysterical lunatics. For example, on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Wednesday 20th July, the Guardian journalist Simon Hoggart made the following extraordinary statement.

 "Hysteria ? That was what the News Of The World was all about. Do you remember their "Burn Out A Nonce" campaign ? Rebekah Wade was going to publish the names of every paedophile in the country. A lot of News Of The World readers went out and tried to burn out a paediatrician."

 The alleged "Burn Out A Nonce" campaign is a product of Mr Hoggart's febrile imagination and the paediatrician/paedophile story has been wildly exaggerated by those who wish to demonise anti-paedophile campaigners. The prosaic truth is that in August 2000 there was a single incident where a doctor had the word "Paedo" daubed on her front door.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4719364.stm

 I trust that Mr Hoggart will be made to apologise for his deeply offensive lies and that the BBC will no longer give him air-time.

What Is More Serious ? Phone Hacking Or Paedophilia ?

 I am baffled by the blanket media coverage of the so-called "phone hacking scandal" and also by the resources which the police are deploying to investigate this matter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14222771

 I am not suggesting that invasions of privacy are a trivial matter and it is in the public interest to be made aware of how politicians and police have, for their own reasons, appeared to turn a blind eye to this practice in the past.

 However, surely no-one would suggest that listening to phone messages is as serious a crime as the rape of a disabled child ?

 Why do the mainstream media continue to ignore the Hollie Greig case ?

 How many police officers were involved in the investigation of Hollie's allegations ?

 David Cameron has been drawn into the phone hacking scandal due to the fact that his recently departed Director of Communications, Andy Coulson, was formerly Editor of the News Of The World. Interestingly, Coulson's successor in Downing Street, Craig Oliver, has connections to the Hollie Greig case.

 Not only is Oliver a friend and former BBC colleague of Mark Daly, who pulled the plug on a planned documentary on the case, but his father is disgraced ex-policeman Dr Ian Oliver, who was Chief Constable of Grampian Police for the majority of the period throughout which Hollie alleged she was abused.

*****

 There were no significant developments at Stonehaven Sheriff Court yesterday and the next intermediate diet will take place on August 18th.

 

Crooked Lawyers

 The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are pursuing the case against myself with considerable zeal. Why are they failing to take any action against lawyers alleged to have fiddled their Legal Aid claims ?

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2011/07/17/fourten-lawyers-reported-after-being-accused-of-fiddling-legal-aid-but-not-one-prosecution-86908-23277456/

Yet Another Trip To Stonehaven

 On Wednesday 20th July I will be attending yet another Intermediate Diet at Stonehaven Sheriff Court. This will be my ninth appearance there since I was arrested and by the end of this trip I will have travelled more than 6,000 miles in total from my home in Cheshire in order to attend court hearings in the North East of Scotland. The last three hearings have lasted no more than ten minutes.

 To put the travelling into perspective, 6,000 miles is than the distance from my home to Los Angeles or Beijing or Johannesburg or Rio de Janeiro.

 In my brief visits to Stonehaven it appears to be a very nice town, and I must say that I have not sensed any danger of the "serious civil unrest" which the Crown claimed could be triggered by my appearance in Aberdeenshire.

Salmond Speaks Out ... But Not About Hollie Greig

  First Minister Alex Salmond has called for prosecutions in a matter which has been brought to his attention even although the police investigation has barely started.

 Unfortunately he is not talking about the Hollie Greig case but the News Of The World phone hacking scandal. The only similarity between the two cases appears to be that the initial police investigation in both instances was woefully inadequate.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14092672

  The phone hacking allegations are extremely serious but it is important to remember that they are only allegations at this stage. As serious as they are, they pale into significance compared to the allegations made by Hollie Greig and the wider implications of the failure to investigate them and the subsequent treatment of Hollie, her mother Anne, myself and others who will not accept this state of affairs.

 Yet still Alex Salmond sticks his head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. His office now claims that crucial coorespondence has "gone missing".

  http://www.firmmagazine.com/news/2487/First_Minister_in_missing_records_riddle_over_Hollie_Greig_abuse_allegations_.html