Indeed it was but sadly things have changed and with an unseen and well protected guiding hand from on high these bigots are immune.
I’m going to stick my neck out and say that this enquiry (BTW where does this info come from?) will prove to be inconclusive and the’ guilty party will not be traced.
There is most certainly a bigger story here and it all points to someone of ‘importance’ being protected by a corrupt overseer.
There will almost certainly be a backed up file of the missing ‘production’ and in the normal course of things the rule of ‘best eveidence’ would prevail.
The thing is if there is a back up then the crown can make a motion to have the ‘copy’ allowed into evidence and it’s up to a sheriff to decide on the merits of each individual case. As far as I’m aware no such procedural motion was made by the PF and it seems the case was simply desrteted by the crown.
Given the high profile nature of this case I doubt very much that the trial depute was the one who made the decision to desert the case and the decision would have been made either by a senior fiscal in the trials unit or even by the regional PF depute.
IF it turns out that there is to be an enquiry the decision making process should come under as much scrutiny as the integrity of the missing crown productions.
All the best L I hope you and your family are doing well.