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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

This Guy has waited 7 years since SCCRC referred his case back to our Appeal Courts

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s...killer39-bids-to-clear.4474802.jp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7606972.stm

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 ?

Third Appeal while I have never had one

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

Wullie

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
_________________
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.

kevin donald · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 198

George Beattie appeal 04/03/09.

http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2009HCJAC22.html

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

So sad that this has happened.

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

Published: 2009/03/04 13:19:48 GMT

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

I am absolutely appalled that SCCRC referred this case back in July 2001 and it has taken 8years for a decision from the appeal courts:

http://www.sccrc.org.uk/conviction.aspx?start=37

In my opinion they either waited to see if he would die or they have waited 8 years to find a way out.

Wonder of SCCRC will refer it again like they did with Campbell & Steele.

In some of these cases the trials only last a few days yet it takes years and years to get an appeal.

This practice must change, Nearly a decade to get an appeal heard is simple just not good enough.

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

SCCRC refused to refer Jocky Robertson's case after police from Lothian & Borders said no DNA or Biological samples existed.

http://shirleymckie.myfastforum.org/sutra2971.php#2971

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

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

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.

There is much information on this terrible case

http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.hill34/bindex.htm

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

An interesting article on George Beattie comes in the form of an appeal from Jimmy Hood:

http://www.publications.parliamen...mhansrd/1993-03-03/Debate-28.html

Even then he was being denied access to Key Material.

Nice to see that not much has changed then eh ?

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

I experienced a similar thing to Beattie once at the hands of Bathgate Police in late 70's

They dragged me to Woods and flung my head into a ditch and where screaming at me: This is where you left the stuff Beck.

They beat me up in the woods and tried to get me to confess.

I think this was for the theft of Phones and Dictaphones then.

There is evidence the Police took Beattie to where the body was found in woods.

God knows what they did to Beattie thinking him guilty of such henious crime.