Shirley McKie
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Shirley McKie is a former Scottish police officer. Experts from the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) accused DC McKie of leaving her thumb print on the bathroom door frame of a murder crime-scene on January 14, 1997. But she denied ever having been inside the house in Kilmarnock of murder victim Marion Ross, whose body was discovered on January 8, 1997.
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[edit] Perjury
In March 1998, PC McKie was arrested in a dawn raid and charged with perjury. However, in May 1999, the Scottish High Court of Justiciary rejected the SCRO's fingerprint evidence and McKie was unanimously found not guilty of perjury.
[edit] Compensation
McKie sued her employers regarding the manner in which she was arrested but, in February 2003, lost the case against Strathclyde Police and faced a legal bill of £13,000. McKie faced bankruptcy as a result, and she had to be treated for depression. An anonymous donor paid the legal bill in June 2004 and McKie was reported to be "absolutely overjoyed".[1].
A second civil action was then raised suing the Scottish Executive amongst others on the basis that a malicious prosecution had been caused by dishonesty of the SCRO fingerprint experts. A few days before evidence in this case was to be heard, in February 2006, McKie was offered and accepted £750,000 from the Scottish Executive in full settlement of her claim, without admission of liability. The case was then dropped. At an earlier stage of the case against the Scottish Executive the Lord Advocate Colin Boyd argued that expert witnesses should always be immune from prosecution – even if they gave false evidence.
Citing McKie's out-of-court settlement, sacked British diplomat Patrick Haseldine has petitioned the prime minister for the same level of compensation.[2]
[edit] Parliamentary inquiry
Following the out-of-court settlement, Opposition parties in the Scottish parliament called for a public inquiry to be held into the McKie case. In March 2006, Shirley McKie's father, Iain, and Dr Jim Swire, father of Lockerbie bombing victim, Flora, met to launch a campaign for a judicial inquiry which they hoped would investigate recent revelations of a link between the McKie case and the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial. After the meeting, Dr Swire said:
- "The reputation of our country and its criminal justice system will depend upon how these cases are sorted out."[3]
However, the Scottish Executive ruled out both a public inquiry and a judicial inquiry (which has the power to compel the attendance of witnesses). Instead, the Scottish parliament decided to refer the McKie case to its Justice 1 Committee which began its inquiry in April 2006 and is expected to take evidence from 30 witnesses.
Ms McKie, accompanied by her father Iain and a team of legal advisers, appeared before the committee of MSPs on May 23, 2006.[4]. Her accusers – the four SCRO fingerprint officers Hugh Macpherson, Fiona McBride, Anthony McKenna and Charles Stewart – appeared a week later on May 30, 2006. The Justice 1 Committee has since requested that the Scottish Executive should provide it with four McKie case reports:
- the Mackay report;
- two reports by fingerprint expert, John MacLeod; and,
- the report by independent expert, Michael Pass.
The Lord Advocate responded by refusing to release the Mackay report for reasons relating to "fundamental principles of our democracy, including the presumption of innocence". Justice minister Cathy Jamieson did however agree to release to MSPs reports by John MacLeod and Michael Pass.[5]The full text of the Mackay report was subsequently published by the BBC.[6]
In September 2006, the four fingerprint officers were reported to have been offered a deal by the SCRO to resign or take early retirement. Their union, Unison, criticised the timing of the offer (before the Justice 1 Committee has reported) and argued that the SCRO officers were being "harassed".[7]
Because of the large amount of evidence taken by the Justice 1 Committee, the drafting of its report is taking longer than expected and MSPs are unlikely to have the opportunity of debating the issue until early 2007.[8]Meanwhile, Shirley McKie and her family announced their campaign for a public inquiry will end on January 9, 2007 – exactly ten years after the Marion Ross murder investigation began:
- "We have given ten years of our lives to this and we are not giving any more. It is the politicians' job now to do something about it," said her father, Ian McKie. "It is not our role to fight for justice: it is their role."[9]
[edit] Protest song
Scottish folk singer and poet, Michael Marra, has written a protest song condemning the "lies" surrounding the McKie case. The song opens:
- "I am Shirley McKie/She is me and I am she/You are too, Shirley is you/We are she because Shirley is we."
Referring to first minister, Jack McConnell, the lyrics continue:
- "We lecture children if they're telling lies/They will not prosper and they will not thrive.../And even the first minister must sometimes stand naked."[10]
