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Fingerprint probe to quiz Wallace Wallace apology to print experts
(about 7 hours later)
The Holyrood inquiry which arose from the Shirley McKie fingerprint case is to resume with evidence from the former Justice Minister Jim Wallace. Former Justice Minister Jim Wallace, has apologised to the four fingerprint officers at the heart of the Shirley McKie case.
Ministers paid the former detective £750,000 after a jury decided a murder scene print had been wrongly identified as hers, and cleared her of lying. In evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, Mr Wallace said he regretted what the forensic scientists had gone through.
MSPs are to get their first glimpse of the Mackay police report into the circumstances surrounding the case. In 2000, he said the same thing about Ms McKie after he told MSPs her print had been misidentified.
MSP Alex Neil has condemned the edited version presented to the inquiry. Before the Justice 1 Committee, he said he regretted that four experts involved continue to live under a cloud.
He said it omits a finding of criminality and cover up detailed in a previously leaked version. Processes within the organisation were not as good as they should've been William TaylorFormer constabulary watchdog
Ms McKie was awarded her out-of-court settlement from the Scottish Executive in February this year. Labour MSP Ken McIntosh pointed out that the four had never been charged with criminal activity nor found guilty under disciplinary proceedings and had never been allowed to return to normal duties.
She was wrongly accused of leaving her fingerprint at a murder scene while serving as a detective in Ayrshire and cleared of perjury in 1999. He said they continued to be vilified by McKie supporters.
First Minister Jack McConnell referred to the misidentification as an honest mistake. The probe was set up after political pressure over the case of former police detective Ms McKie, who was cleared of leaving her print at a murder scene in 1997.
Mr Wallace, who was justice minister from 1999 until last year, will be asked why he gave no such explanation. MSPs on the committee were also told quality assurance was not good enough in Scotland's fingerprint service in the aftermath of the McKie case.
The Scottish Parliament's justice 1 Committee began its inquiry into the fingerprint service in April. Former Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland William Taylor had found the Scottish Criminal Records Office's (SCRO) fingerprint bureau was not fully effective and efficient after an inspection he carried out in 2000.
He told MSPs there was much good work at the SCRO but said there was an introverted culture where experts thought that their way was the "best way".
Awarded compensation
"Processes within the organisation were not as good as they should've been," he said.
"The way in which you were made an expert was not as good as it should have been, the quality assurance processes were not as good as they should have been."
It was Mr Taylor who, in the course of his inspection, commissioned European experts to re-examine the disputed print.
They concluded that it was not Ms McKie's.
This prompted the Scottish Executive to admit that it had been a misidentification.
Ms McKie was awarded £750,000 in compensation from the executive earlier this year.
Mr Taylor said that absence levels were high at the SCRO when he was asked about morale in the organisation during his inspection.