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A lawyer who represents survivors of childhood sexual abuse is facing a backlash for securing a reduced sentence for a Scottish paedophile.
Francis Cairney, a former manager at Celtic Boys Club, was given a four-year jail term for abusing young footballers in the 1970s and 1980s.
His sentence was reduced to three years after appeal judges ruled in November that a failure to disclose one alleged victim’s past crimes of dishonesty amounted to a “miscarriage of justice”. Cairney’s appeal was handled by Simon Collins, a solicitor advocate who heads the legal team for In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), a charity that represents about 400 survivors and is a core participant at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.
Collins has not broken any rules but his decision to take on the appeal has caused upset. Michelle Gray, whose late brother, Andrew, was abused by Celtic Boys Club founder Jim Torbett, a convicted paedophile, said: “I understand that lawyers have a job to do, but why help Cairney get a reduced sentence on a legal loophole? I find that questionable.”
One legal observer said Collins’s involvement with the Cairney case was “a moral line [that] had been crossed”, while a Scottish lawyer said he could see no issue.
David Whelan, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and spokesman for Former Boys And Girls Abused of Quarriers Homes, said: “My feeling is that you can’t be in both camps.” Janine Rennie, from Wellbeing Scotland, a survivors’ support group, described it as a “major misjudgement”, adding: “In my view, there’s a real conflict of interest if a lawyer represents survivors in a high-profile manner and at the same time helps defend a predatory paedophile.”
Helen Holland, chairwoman of Incas, said she was aware of Collins’ role in the Cairney case but it “did not raise any undue concerns”.
Under Scottish law, advocates are obliged to accept cases under the “cab rank” rule, which ensures that an individual, regardless of the crime or crimes they are accused of, receive robust legal representation. The rule does not apply to solicitor advocates such as Collins, who did not defend Cairney at his 2018 trial but led the paedophile’s appeal last year.
The appeal hinged on the Crown’s failure to disclose past crimes of one complainant, referred to in court documents as “WA”, including obtaining property by deception. Collins argued that knowledge of the man’s past crimes could have assisted the defence case. Appeal judges agreed and Cairney’s conviction for the alleged attack on WA — which accounted for one year of his four-year sentence — was quashed.
WA passed away shortly after the appeal verdict, aged 60, from natural causes.
Professor Alan Paterson, director of the Centre for Professional Legal Studies at the University of Strathclyde University, said: “Without commenting on the facts of this particular case, one can understand why survivors of abuse might well find it difficult and unacceptable in principle for lawyers to act for both victims and for accused persons, but historically the traditions of advocacy have entailed that advocates may one day represent an employer and the next an employee or one day act for a personal injury victim and the next act for an insurance company.”
Collins was approached by this newspaper but declined to comment.
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