SCOTTISH COVERUP

The FBI has been accused of demanding a cover-up of forensic mistakes in the case of a former police officer cleared of perjury because publicity would dent confidence in Scottish justice as the Lockerbie trial began. Two American fingerprint experts who helped to clear Shirley McKie of perjury in 1999 say they were approached by the FBI and asked not to publicise their concerns about inaccurate evidence given by the Scottish fingerprint service because it "might taint the people involved in Lockerbie".

Yesterday Ms McKie's family and supporters again called for the Scottish Executive to hold a public inquiry into the case.
Ms McKie was wrongly accused of leaving her thumbprint at a murder scene in 1997, when she was a Strathclyde Police detective, and was charged with perjury when she insisted that it was not hers. She was cleared in 1999 with the help of international fingerprint experts who proved that the print did not belong to her.

The doubts raised about the professionalism of the evidence-gathering of the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) came at a bad time for the Crown. In 2000 the Scottish justice system was under scrutiny as the trial started in the Netherlands of two Libyans over the Pan Am bombing. Tam Dalyell, the former MP, said: "I now strongly believe that there has to be a proper inquiry to establish the facts."

David Grieve, of Illinois State Police, and Pat Wertheim were two of the fingerprint experts who helped Ms McKie. Mr Grieve told Scotland on Sunday. "I was asked not to mention anything about the case because we had to think about the higher goal, which was Lockerbie." He also said that the FBI had been visited by officials from the SCRO, which has denied that the McKie case was discussed. Mr Grieve said: "I was given a lecture on the importance of not embarrassing a sister agency which had cases pending of international significance. I know the reference was to the Pan Am bombing."

This month the Executive paid Ms McKie 750,000 pounds in an out-of-court settlement for what it called an "honest mistake" by the SCRO "on the basis that the misidentification was not done maliciously".

The Scottish Executive said that there had already been two inquiries: "We don't see a third would shed any new light." A spokeswoman added that there had been "significant improvements" to the fingerprint service at the SCRO. The Crown Office said: "The SCRO were not involved in any way with fingerprinting of the Lockerbie case."

Report here



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