Legal chief defends trial system

Gordon Gibson's family wants answers

Scotland's senior law officer has defended the legal system amid calls for an overhaul of the way trials involving more than one person are handled.

The Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, denied there was a fundamental problem with such cases.

But the family of a former policeman murdered last year is demanding to know why no-one was convicted of his murder.

Two men were charged; a third man gave evidence for the prosecution and the other two blamed him for the killing of Gordon Gibson, from East Kilbride.

No one was convicted of Gordon Gibson's murder

The case bore similarities to the attempted prosecution of three men for the killing of Surjit Singh Chhokar, a Lanarkshire waiter.

After two separate trials, no-one was convicted of his murder.

The Gibson family said they cannot grieve properly because they know whoever killed Gordon is walking the streets.

His brother Alan said that in cases where there is no other corroborative evidence, the accused should not be allowed simply to blame each other and get away with their crime.

'Bitter experience'

Speaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he said there should be root and branch change within the legal system.

Mr Gibson said: "It was afterwards that the Crown prosecution decided to drop the charge and use one of the accused as a witness.

"We now need to ask the question, what was the logic and rationale in making that decision, why it was made and why it went wrong?

"Everyone knows that our legal system is based on the fact that you are innocent until proven guilty, but I now feel that from this bitter, personal experience that if there are multiple accused then perhaps it should be the other way round.

"Perhaps it should be guilty until proven innocent and instead of the prosecution having to prove guilt, the defence has to prove innocence."

Colin Boyd defended the legal system

Jack Gibson, Gordon's father, said his family believed "the system of prosecuting multiple accused people is fundamentally flawed as seen in recent cases".

"My son was brutally murdered. The Crown should have put all three on trial instead of trying to use one to convict the other two."

However, the lord advocate denied there was a fundamental problem with such prosecutions.

"The error that was in the Chhokar case has not been replicated in the other (case).

"So I don't believe there is the need for a general inquiry into multiple accused, but I do accept that we always have to learn from every case and to ensure that we follow best practice.

"They are hard but we do actually try hard to prosecute them effectively and in general our conviction rate in murder cases is very high."