This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Lord Advocate comments on trial
28/03/2002
The Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd QC today commented on the
Crown's part in a murder trial that sat over a 3 month
period.
David Smith Watt Kennedy (50) and William Johnston (50)
were today found guilty of the murder of George William
Simpson at Forfar High Court, and sentenced to life
imprisonment.
The original trial had to be abandoned in January 2002
after the Crown put a statement before the jury in which
there was a reference from which it could be inferred that
one of the accused had a previous conviction.
The Lord Advocate said:
"While it is regrettable that the trial had to restart,
it should be clearly understood that the overall length of
proceedings was a result of matters which were entirely
outwith the control of the Crown, namely the activities of
one of the accused.
"This was a large and complex case, made all the more
difficult to prosecute as a result of William Johnston
repeatedly dismissing his legal advisers.
"The Crown's Advocate Depute in the first trial is a
very experienced criminal practitioner. I am satisfied that
the Crown's placing of unedited information before the jury
in the first trial was simple human error".
During the first trial, a statement given by one of the
accused to the police was put before the jury without a
reference to a meeting in prison being deleted.
The Advocate Depute (AD) who conducted the first trial
was aware that such material ought not to be placed before
the jury, but in the considerable confusion which
surrounded the trial he inadvertently omitted to have the
offending lines deleted from the statement.
The AD had deleted the offending passage from a
transcript of a tape recorded interview with the accused.
He had originally intended to use the transcript in
evidence instead of the statement but at a late stage
decided to use the statement which, unfortunately, had not
been amended.