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.