He is supported I see only by Peter Hill who was involved in the old style program of miscarriages called BBC's Rough Justice programme at Chancery Lane London.
The case has striking similarities with the recent case of Raymond Gilmour.
Where is our support from our own Scottish organisations for this case ?
I remember this case and I was delighted to see George got his appeal and will hopefully be exonerated this time.
I have been reading your case and its an appalling injustice that has been inflicted upon you and your family all these years.
George in some ways has been "lucky" in that he has had Peter Hill and the Rough Justice Team behind him to help push this.
What you and others suffering injustices should do is try to create a support network and have people write to the appropriate people, ie MPs and media and let them know about the injustice.
It seems to me that this is one of the kind of things missing in the campaigning strategies in Scottish cases.
The last big case in Glasgow that I recall petitions, rallies etc highlighting a case was the Glasgow Two.
Some sort of campaigning committee is needed. People need to be aware of cases in laymens terms, like in a synopsis of what happened. People will understand what the injustices are if they are put in simple terms.
Any successful campaign I have been involved in has a network of people who will speak out and write the letters asking when justice will be done.
The sooner the powers that be realise that other people also know of these injustices the better.
What I am seeing right now is a group of miscarriage of justice victims with no where to go and no real plan on how to move forward.
In my opinion it is up to us to let people know about these cases and not just wait to see if courts will listen. We need to make them listen.
I am not saying it is easy but nothing worthwhile ever is.
Its time we moved our bums and got to action on this stuff.
K x _________________ http://www.freewebs.com/justiceforallinnocents/
Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Old Native American Indian Prayer that my dad taught me.
A man who was jailed for life for murder more than 35 years ago has failed in his latest attempt to clear his name.
George Beattie was 19 when he was jailed for stabbing 23-year-old typist Margaret McLaughlin in woods near Carluke, North Lanarkshire, in 1973.
Beattie, whose case was taken up by the BBC's Rough Justice programme, served 15 years before being freed on licence.
Appeal judges rejected claims he had been "bullied" into making statements.
He lost a previous appeal in 1994. This latest attempt was referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
In a written ruling, Scotland's top judge, Lord Hamilton, said he was satisfied that information Beattie gave police was "volunteered" and not fed to him by officers.
The appeal judges also rejected claims that the trial judge in 1973 had misdirected the jury and that there was not enough evidence for a reasonable jury to find Beattie guilty.
“ This really comes as no surprise to George because of the system of justice in Scotland ”
Peter Hill
Rough Justice producer
The jury at Beattie's original trial took 35 minutes to find him guilty of the frenzied knife attack on Miss McLaughlin.
The court heard he had claimed Ms McLaughlin was killed by men wearing top hats decorated with mirrors while he was forced to watch.
The story was supposed to explain why he apparently knew so much about the scene of the crime.
The appeal court heard from psychology expert Professor Gisli Gudjonsson.
The 60-year-old professor from the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, London, has made a studied the way vulnerable suspects can be led into agreeing to false stories.
Beattie, now 55, claims that the jury at his trial should never have heard statements he is alleged to have made to murder hunt detectives, insisting that he was subjected to bullying and pressure.
Frenzied attack
Although he never confessed to the murder, the Crown case depended heavily on Beattie's supposed "special knowledge" which could only be known to Miss McLaughlin's killer or a witness to the murder.
Miss McLaughlin was walking to the railway station to catch a train to Glasgow when she was murdered in July 1973.
Her route took her along a woodland path through an area known as Colonel's Glen, where her body was found. She had been stabbed 19 times and her ring had been stolen.
Beattie, who worked in a steel mill and was considered by some as a local misfit, became a suspect after telling police who were conducting door-to-door inquiries that he had been in the woods that night.
A tissue found in his pocket was stained with blood which did not match his own and could have come from Miss McLaughlin.
Beattie has been supported through the appeal process by TV producer Peter Hill, who made the Rough Justice programmes.
Speaking after the latest ruling, Mr Hill said: "This really comes as no surprise to George because of the system of justice in Scotland and the hidden rules of the Court of Appeal, the main rule being you must not mention wrong-doing by the police."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/...land/glasgow_and_west/7923558.stm
These samples have since turned up at Aldermaston and Mr Robertson has lodged another appeal to SCCRC but they seem to be dragging their feet with claims these samples are specially sealed or something.
They (SCCRC)will not (through personal experience) like being caught on the hop and will be fizzing that someone has taken their case further than they did.
In my own case I had to find witness's that SCCRC told me could not be traced by the "Police and Private Detectives"
This was despite the witness's being in the "Phone Book"
It seems Police can tell SCCRC whatever they want to and it will not be challenged by SCCRC
This is the story of a great miscarriage of justice that throws a dark shadow over the Scottish legal and judicial system. George Beattie was convicted of the murder of Margaret McLaughlin in 1973. Her body was discovered on July 7th in a glen near to her home in Carluke, a small town about halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Margaret had been stabbed 19 times.
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