‘Unprecedented’ mauling of the lord advocate by MSPspublished at 12:17 GMT
12:17 GMT
David Cowan
Home affairs correspondent, BBC Scotland
Seasoned Holyrood observers say the savage mauling of the lord advocate by opposition MSPs at Holyrood yesterday was unprecedented.
Dorothy Bain is the head of Scotland’s prosecution service, not a politician, and it was clearly a deeply uncomfortable experience for her.
Her 19 January memo informed John Swinney of the financial scale of the allegations against his party’s old boss, information which didn’t reach the rest of us until last week.
The Crown Office says the note was intended to update the first minister on developments in a high profile case and remind the government that “any public comment on the matter may form the basis of a legal challenge to the fairness of the proceedings”.
She also told Swinney that any trial might not take place until March next year, although that would come as no surprise to anyone who watches what happens in the courts.
The affair has renewed the controversy over the lord advocate’s wearing of two legal hats, as head of the Crown Office and the Scottish government’s chief legal advisor.
It means she leads the service which is prosecuting Peter Murrell, and sits in the Scottish cabinet alongside SNP politicians who know him very well.
Although she has taken no part in the Crown’s decision making process on his case, opposition MSPs believe her memo to the first minister crossed a line.
It is ironic that her “careful what you say” warning has provoked so much sound and fury.
And with the fairness of any eventual trial in mind, Peter Murrell’s lawyers will be watching what is said very closely.