Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Solicitors ‘better geared’ to guide children than Scottish Government says Law Society in criticism of Children & Young People (Scotland) Bill

The Law Society of Scotland has today, 31 July, raised concerns that Scottish Government proposals to assign a 'named person' to every child in Scotland could interfere with Scottish families' right to respect for private and family life and amount to disproportionate state interference. The concerns come after concerns were expressed by the the Law Society that solicitors are ‘better geared’ to be involved with families than health workers or teachers.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill proposes that every child born in Scotland is assigned a 'named person', such as a health worker or head teacher, from birth up until the age of 18. The role of this 'named person' would be to connect the family and child more effectively to a range of services and professionals. The 'named person' could also raise a matter about the child with a service provider or relevant authority.

In its written evidence to the Education and Culture Committee of the Scottish Parliament, the Law Society argues that the provisions could conflict with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Society also raises a series of practical concerns about how the system would work in practice with further work pressure on notoriously under resourced staff and the risk that services end up being diverted away from where they are most needed.  MSPs also raised a series of issues when the Children's Minister gave oral evidence to the Education and Culture committee last April.

Morag Driscoll, Convener of the Law Society of Scotland's Family Law Committee said: "The policy aims behind this legislation are admirable and we recognise the genuine effort to improve the lives of children and young people in Scotland. However, we are not convinced that this legislation achieves those aims.

"The proposals could interfere with Article 8 of ECHR, the right to respect for private and family life, as there is scope for interference between the role of the 'named person' and the exercise of a parent's rights and responsibilities. It could be interpreted as disproportionate state interference.

"We are also unclear about how this legislation will work in practice and in particular, the resources required to administer the 'named person' scheme.

"We all want law that is clear, proportionate and enforceable. It is still early in the parliamentary process for this legislation so we hope the Scottish Government and MSPs will be able to reflect on these points."

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Inquiry call as Crown Office refuse to prosecute son of top Scottish judge who made rape threats against woman on Twitter social media

Son of top Scottish judge made rape threats on twitter. CALLS for an investigation into why Scotland’s Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland has refused to prosecute the son of a top Scottish judge who made threats of rape on twitter to a woman have today been made by legal insiders vexed at claims of underhanded tactics by Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to subdue reporting on the story.

It has previously been reported by the Scottish media that the son of a high ranking Court of Session judge told a football player’s girlfriend she was going to “enjoy getting raped and stabbed in Glasgow”.

However, the Crown Office have angrily set upon journalists who recently made further enquiries of the story and so far no action has been taken, despite action taken by Police & the Crown Prosecution Service in England & Wales in cases where female campaigners and even a female Member of Parliament have recently been threatened in a similar manner.

Reporting of the threats has been published earlier, here :

Son of High Court judge tells David Templeton's girlfriend: Enjoy getting raped in Glasgow

ROBYN WALKER was the target of a series of lurid and threatening messages sent when her boyfriend decided to move from Hearts to Rangers.

A HIGH Court judge’s son told Rangers star David Templeton’s girlfriend she was going to be raped after he signed for the Glasgow club.

The message sent to Robyn Walker from the Twitter account of the privately educated
teenager said: “Enjoy getting raped and stabbed in Glasgow you wench.”

The 16-year-old’s father promised to “deal with it” when the message was brought to his attention by the Sunday Mail.

Police said they would investigate if any complaint was received.

Lawyers say the tweet could be an offence under telecom legislation.

Robyn was the target of a series of lurid and threatening messages sent when her boyfriend decided to move from Hearts to Rangers.

She said: “I was shocked when I got this tweet saying he wanted me raped and stabbed.

“It wasn’t nice but I have not complained to police.

“My friends said I should but I have decided not to take it any further.”

Templeton, 23, responded to the message and other threats on his Twitter page.

The Rangers star posted: “People slaughtering my gf! It’s embarrassing! She has nothing to do with what’s happened!”

The judge told us: “Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I will go and deal with it now.”

Both Lothian and Borders and Strathclyde Police said they can only investigate abusive comments made on social networking sites like Twitter if the targets complain to them. A spokeswoman for the Strathclyde force added: “Our football co-ordination unit will view the tweet to see if any criminality occurred.”

Leading criminal lawyer Matthew Berlow said: “Anyone who leaves an offensive message on a social networking site such as Twitter could be breaching the Telecommunications Act.”

Templeton signed for Hearts in 2007 before joining Rangers on August 31.

His move attracted heavy criticism from Hearts fans.

The sinister tweets can be revealed just months after we told how another internet troll threatened to sexually attack an alleged rape victim on a football fans’s message board.

He posted anonymously that he would “violently rape” the mum as MPs voiced escalating concern at the threatening and women-hating content of many messages left on social network sites and message boards.

His post was just one of scores of bile-filled messages directed at the woman after she accused Blackburn Rovers footballer David Goodwillie of rape.

Charges were brought against the player but later dropped.

Last month a 37-year-old man was was charged with breach of the peace over the posts and is due to appear in court.

Recovery order of £50K made in case of Mortgage Fraudster in receipt of benefits

Lord Bannatyne has today issued his opinion in a civil recovery case involving Yvonne Kelbie, granting a recovery order in respect of approximately £50,000, being the free proceeds from the sale of a house initially obtained by Yvonne Kelbie using funds received from a lender as a result of the fraudulent mortgage application.  The proceeds will be remitted to the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

Scottish Ministers, represented by the Crown Office alleged in the Court of Session that Yvonne Kelbie obtained property through unlawful conduct, in particular, mortgage fraud. Lord Bannatyne has decided that Yvonne Kelbie lied in her mortgage application when she claimed to receive income from employment, when in truth she relied on state benefits. The full opinion can be read at the following link http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2013CSOH129.html

Speaking of the case Neill Thomson, Acting Head of Civil Recovery Unit, said: “Civil recovery proceedings can be used to recover property obtained through any type of crime.  In this case, the sum recovered represents financial gains from fraud perpetrated against a mortgage lender.  The CRU will continue to use civil recovery proceedings to target assets which have been obtained through crime.”

The Lord Advocate ordered the following to be published in the Crown Office website :

1. Yvonne Kelbie, DOB 25 September 1958, lives in Edinburgh

2. Yvonne Kelbie may appeal Lord Bannatyne’s decision within 21 days of the formal interlocutor which will follow.

3. The funds in the bank account amount to approximately £51,465.

4. Evidence in this case was heard on 13 March 2013 and 14 May 2013.

5. Proceeds of Crime legislation is also used by the Civil Recovery Unit acting on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The Civil Recovery Unit investigates and recovers the property realised through criminal activity of individuals, in the civil courts without the need for criminal conviction.

6. Since 2003, the use of the Proceeds of Crime Act in Scotland has allowed over £80million to be recovered from criminals. Money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act is invested by Scottish Ministers. Over £50m of these proceeds have been put to excellent use by investing in a wide range of sporting, cultural, educational and mentoring activities for children and young people through the CashBack for Communities programme. Since the programme's inception in 2007, over 600,000 young people across Scotland have benefited. Details can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cashback.

7. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is a committed member of the Scottish Government’s Serious Organised Crime Task Force. The Task Force has a remit to pursue serious organised crime in all its forms by bringing together all agencies involved in tackling organised crime groups. Task Force members include the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, the Lord Advocate, representatives from COPFS, the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, HMRC, SOCA, SPS and the Scottish Business Resilience Centre. Details of the work of the Taskforce can be accessed here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/crimes/organised-crime.

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Lord Advocate, Crown Office target newspapers with murder squad detectives over revelations of alleged bullying, misconduct by Police Chiefs

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland instructed Police witch-hunt against media leaks. SCOTLAND’S £100m a year Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) headed by Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, has launched a highly criticised investigation against the Sunday Mail newspaper over revelations of alleged bullying and misconduct by Police Chiefs.

The investigation at the behest of the Crown Office is widely seen as an attempt to thwart future whistle-blowers from leaking information surrounding dodgy dealings and widespread misconduct in the new single Police Service of Scotland (PSS) and other parts of Scotland's widely discredited justice system and it’s errant children.
 
COP MOLEHUNT CONDEMNED Sunday Mail 7 July 2013 wTop cops probe councillors to try to find sources of Sunday Mail reports that embarrassed police chiefs 
  
By Russell Findlay Sunday Mail Jul 2013 08:30
 
POLITICIANS, free speech campaigners and media experts condemn detectives' investigation after we revealed allegations of bullying and misconduct by senior officers.
 
ELITE detectives have been ordered to quiz councillors to try to find the sources of Sunday Mail stories that embarrassed their bosses.
 
Officers from Police Scotland’s Major Investigation Team are trying to identify the source of our reports which revealed allegations of bullying and misconduct by senior officers.
 
Detectives from the unit who usually tackle murders, serious and organised crime and terrorism  want to quiz councillors who served on the former Strathclyde Police Authority.
 
Yesterday, the unprecedented molehunt was questioned by politicians, free speech campaigners and media experts who voiced fears of a “chilling effect” on the press in the wake of the Leveson Report.
 
Professor Tim Luckhurst, of the University of Kent journalism school and a former editor of The Scotsman, said: “The allegations published in the Sunday Mail plainly deal with serious matters that should be in the public domain. They conform with any serious definition of what is in the public interest. It is alarming that police officers are expending time and energy in an effort to identify the whistleblower.”
 
In November, we told how Detective Superintendent Michael Orr, then in charge of the bungled investigation into the murder of Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll had accused three Strathclyde Police bosses of misconduct. They included Neil Richardson, who is now the £169,000-a-year Deputy Chief Constable at the new single Police Scotland force led by Sir Stephen House. One of Orr’s allegations was that Richardson had breached data protection laws.
 
The following month, the Sunday Mail reported that Richardson along with another officer were the subject of a separate complaint by Mike Currie, who is an ex-Deputy Chief Constable of Central Scotland Police. The case centres on claims that members of the force’s pipe band, including Currie’s sons, had been bullied.
 
A report probed 13 complaints about Richardson including neglect of duty, willful or careless falsehood and conduct likely to bring discredit. It found enough evidence for the authority to consider one neglect of duty claim against Richardson but they took no action. Currie also alleged criminality against Richardson but procurator fiscal John Dunn decided no crime had been committed.
 
Both stories are now being investigated by the MIT, led by Detective Inspector Bob Frew, from their office in Govan, Glasgow.
 
It is not known what sparked the investigation but MIT officers have asked councillors who served on the now defunct Strathclyde Police Authority’s complaints and professional standards committee to be available for interview.
 
The molehunt comes just weeks after Glasgow City Council launched an internal inquiry to find out how the Herald newspaper learned the new publicly-funded Hydro venue was unlikely to open on schedule because of construction delays.
 
Yesterday, Labour justice spokesman Graeme Pearson MSP questioned the police inquiry. He said: “I hope that they’re not using a sledgehammer to crack a nut here. There is a public interest in these matters we need to see transparency about what goes on.”
 
Kirsty Hughes, chief executive of Index on Censorship, said: “It is of considerable concern that, following these reports, which are in the public interest, police are investigating the source of the information.”
 
Glasgow SNP MSP Bob Doris said: “This may be considered by many to be both disproportionate and overly defensive.”
 
Tory MP Rob Wilson has been critical of how Lord Leveson handled an alleged conflict of interest in his inquiry. The Reading East MP said: “It is very worrying to learn that, following the Leveson report, the police are investigating journalists who report on them. It is not going too far to say that it is a threat to the health of democracy if police end up immune from media scrutiny.”
 
Prof Luckhurst added: “Editors have warned of a chilling effect since Leveson reported. They fear that it has given state and public authorities encouragement to hide information that should be public property. Their actions are unlikely to serve the public interest in any way.”
 
Police Scotland said: “Following instruction from the Crown Office, inquiries are ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment.”
 
The Scottish Police Authority said: “Any allegations of criminality are referred to the Crown Office

Mail Opinion: A chilling threat to a free press 7 Jul 2013 00:01
 
MAIL OPINION says getting straight answers from the authorities, particularly Police Scotland, is like getting blood from a brick.
 
Look up irony in the dictionary and you might find a listing for a Channel 4 documentary being shown on Tuesday night.
 
The programme details Nat Fraser’s retrial for the murder of his wife and is, the producers tell us, the first time in Britain cameras have been allowed in court to film a murder trial.
 
It is a Scottish court and it is ironic because Scottish justice, from arrests to convictions, from criminal courts to civil, is more hidden and closed to the public than ever before.
 
Our papers and broadcasters are the eyes and ears of our readers, viewers and listeners. We find out stuff and then we tell you about it.
 
We like to pretend that we get it whispered in our ears at clandestine meetings with sources in underground car parks at midnight.
 
In reality, most of it has been obtained or, at least, confirmed by straightforward enquiries to the authorities.
 
Has been because, these days, getting straight answers to anything from most of them, but particularly Police Scotland, is like getting blood from a brick. Closing down traditional, official and once-helpful channels of communication is one thing.
 
Charging an elite crime squad set up to investigate terrorists and organised criminals with finding the sources of two Sunday Mail stories about alleged misconduct by senior officers is something else.
 
Who instigated these inquiries? And why? Who sanctioned them? And for what purpose will detectives spend their time quizzing councillors to try to find out if one, two, more or none of them passed information to our journalists.
 
That, of course, is the only part of this misguided, heavy-handed investigation that we know about. Who knows what else they are doing? How much more time and expense is being squandered in pursuit of..what exactly?
 
Do Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, Police Scotland chief constable Stephen House and their lieutenants really believe this molehunt will end in a prosecution?
 
Or are they content that it might help deter other politicians, police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, prosecutors, court officials and civil servants thinking about blowing the whistle in the public interest?
 
Because who needs whistle-blowers, right? Because the authorities will tell us all about the Met smearing Stephen Lawrence’s family? Or the truth about Hillsborough?
 
About how the Care Quality Commission destroyed evidence of their failure to stop children dying needlessly? About GCHQ spying on our emails? About MPs stealing our money and calling it expenses?
 
God and Lord Leveson knows that papers are not perfect but we do our best to tell our readers what is going on.
 
We really don’t want to sound as if we wrap our homes in tinfoil to stop martians stealing our thought waves but there is something going on, right now, right here in Scotland, that is as insidious as it is dangerous.
 
Public authorities, from councils and courts to police and government, seem increasingly keen to treat newspapers and, to a lesser extent, broadcasters like an enemy.
 
We are not their enemy.
 
Their enemy is an arrogant and apparently escalating disregard for the people who inform the people who pay their wages.

Monday, July 08, 2013

Data shows ConDems Bedroom Tax linked to increase in rent arrears all over Scotland

The UK Government’s “disastrous” welfare reform programme has led to a rise in rent arrears and a rise in emergency housing payments across local authorities, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said today.

New data collected by the Scottish Government and COSLA shows that UK Government changes to housing benefit have added significant financial pressures on Scottish councils.

The research showed that all, but one, of Scotland’s local authorities with housing stock, had seen an increase in rent arrears. Three quarters of councils said that the bedroom tax is directly responsible for the increase in arrears.

Of that rent now due to be collected from tenants affected, 60 per cent of councils reported receiving 40 per cent or less and 80 per cent of councils reported receiving 50 per cent or less (based on responses from 20 of the 26 councils with their own housing stock).

Ms Sturgeon said that it was ‘absolutely imperative’ that the DWP review and evaluate the impact of their welfare reforms as a matter of urgency.

Last month, research showed that local authorities had received 22,000 requests for emergency Discretionary Housing payments by the end of May.  Nineteen local authorities saw a 400 per cent rise compared to the same period last year. And by the end of May, 22 per cent of the £10 million funds made available in Scotland for DHPs by the Department for Work and Pensions had been allocated.

Ms Sturgeon said: “This new data shows a drastic increase in the number of people applying for emergency funding to help them deal with the impact of the UK disastrous welfare reform programme.
“Local authorities across Scotland are having to deal with the appalling aftermath of the bedroom tax, which is hitting our most vulnerable citizens, including a high proportion of disabled people, extremely hard in these challenging economic times.

“The Scottish Government and COSLA have had little indication from the UK Government about how they intend to review the impact of the bedroom tax to date - even though it is clear from this research that it is driving up rent arrears and requests for emergency funds.

”That is why we have made a commitment to the people of Scotland that we will scrap the bedroom tax following a successful referendum vote next year. This will be done within a year of independence and we will have the practical arrangements in place to ensure that this happens.

“Working with our partners in local government we have provided £40 million to protect households from the 10 per cent cut in successor arrangements to Council Tax Benefit. We have also allocated funding to support people affected by the bedroom tax with an additional £7.9 million for advice and support services, of which £2.5 million is ring fenced for social landlords.

“We cannot mitigate the full impacts of the UK Government’s cuts to the welfare system without full powers over welfare or access to all our resources – but we will continue to oppose the bedroom tax. It is unfair and divisive policy that hit some of our most vulnerable groups hardest, and it undermines and jeopardises the work this Government is taking forward to create a fairer, more successful, and prosperous Scotland.”

Son of Solicitor General Lesley Thomson arrested after car crash at Islay rugby tournament

Lesley-Thomson-1956011Arresting development : Solicitor General Lesley Thomson. ANDREW THOMSON (26), the son of Lesley Thomson, Scotland’s Solicitor General, has been arrested in connection with an incident in which a car crashed into a marquee at a rugby tournament on the Hebridean island of Islay. The amateur player who travelled to the event with Melrose Rugby Club from the Scottish Borders, where his mother was a committee member, had been due to take part in Islay's Eat Sand rugby contest last week but was arrested before taking part.

Sunday Mail reports :

Son of Scotland's Solicitor General arrested following car crash at an island rugby tournament

16 Jun 2013 08:36

ANDREW Thomson, 26, whose mother is the Solicitor General Lesley Thomson, faces motoring charges after a car drove into a marquee on Islay.

THE son of Scotland's Solicitor General Lesley Thomson has been arrested following a car crash at a beach rugby tournament.

No one was hurt when the car careered into a marquee on the Hebridean island of Islay.

Andrew Thomson, 26, a former Glasgow University student, was held in police cells overnight but left the island the following day. He is thought to have taken the car before driving off and faces a number of motoring charges.

Thomson, a keen amateur player, had been due to take part in Islay's Eat Sand rugby contest last week but was arrested before taking part.

He had travelled to the event with Melrose Rugby Club where his mother -now No2 at the Crown Office -was a committee member.

John Reed, club president, said last night: I am aware there was an incident and that people from Melrose weren't happy about it."

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "We can confirm a 26-year-old man was arrested in connection with alleged road traffic offences. A report has been submitted to the procurator fiscal.・