Murder witness jailed for no show

Angela Hamilton claimed to have been assaulted outside court

A woman whose brother walked free from a murder charge after she failed to give evidence at his trial has been jailed for six years.

Angela Hamilton, 36, claimed an attack outside the High Court in Glasgow left her too scared to return.

She was later convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice by not appearing as a prosecution witness.

Her failure to show resulted in charges against her brother being dropped. Her father was found guilty of the murder.

Daniel Hamilton, and his father, Joseph, went on trial last year accused of murdering 22-year-old Paul White at a flat in Glasgow's Pollokshaws area in August 2004.

Daniel Hamilton had previously fled to the Republic of Ireland before being brought back.

Dr Alistair Brown - the prosecutor in the murder case - told Angela Hamilton's trial that she was an "essential" witness as there was no "secondary form of evidence" to her brother's alleged involvement.

The deceased man Paul White and his family were denied justice and I treat that with the utmost seriousness Judge Norman Ritchie

She had been at the flat on the night of the killing and had claimed in a statement that she thought her brother had given Mr White a "beating".

But Hamilton, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, did not appear in the witness box claiming she had been the victim of an assault.

This meant her brother was acquitted while their father was found guilty and later jailed for 17 years.

Sentencing Hamilton, judge Norman Ritchie said: "You stand convicted of a serious charge of failing to attend court to give evidence in a trial where your father and brother were facing a charge of murder.

"By your actions you achieved a very significant consequence for your brother.

"I don't try to guess how the case would have ended against your brother but it was clear that the Crown could no longer continue proceedings against him.

"This meant that the deceased man Paul White and his family were denied justice and I treat that with the utmost seriousness."