Browse content similar to 14/12/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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and how your report. All right, thank you very much. Tonight on | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
Newsnight Scotland. It's taken more than ten years, but is the Shirley | :00:12. | :00:17. | |
McKie fingerprint case finally at an end? Today an inquiry the found | :00:17. | :00:20. | |
she was a victim of "human error" and there was "nothing sinister" at | :00:21. | :00:23. | |
work in her case. And when Scottish unemployment was below the UK | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
average the SNP were happy to take the credit. Now the opposite is the | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
case, it's all the fault of Westminster. How does the blame | :00:31. | :00:41. | |
:00:41. | :00:44. | ||
game help those looking for work? Good evening. If it did not have | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
hanging over it the tragedy of an unsolved murder, today's report on | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
the Shirley McKie affair would read like one of the most gripping | :00:50. | :00:52. | |
detective novels of the year. It has a young policewoman falsely | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
accused and then prosecuted for denying her fingerprint was at a | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
crime scene. A murder verdict which was overturned, a trial which finds | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
Ms McKie innocent of wrongdoing and the wrecked careers of fingerprint | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
officers who it now turns out were acting in good faith all along. And | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
it has a bigger picture. Right round the world, fingerprint | :01:08. | :01:11. | |
evidence will never be seen in quite the same way again. Reevel | :01:11. | :01:19. | |
At the heart of the cider was a refusal of fingerprint experts to | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
accept they might have been wrong. Today, the head of the service | :01:24. | :01:28. | |
apologised to Katia Zatuliveter, and her father. A tears the most | :01:28. | :01:36. | |
romcom thing that has happened. -- to Shirley Mickey. They have | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
apologised to Shirley, and my family for mistakes made in the | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
past. That gives us optimism and hope that we can move ahead, and | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
implement the recommendations in this report and finally make | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
fingerprinting in Scotland a forensic science. The story goes | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
back 15 years to the brutal murder of former bank clerk, Marion Ross. | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
The body of the 51-year-old was found in her home in commander. | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
Local joiner David Astbury was convicted of killing one | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
fingerprint evidence. The fingerprints of detective surely | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
Nikki had been identified in the house. She told the trial at the | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
murder that she have never been inside and was just what perjurer | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
can stop on a unanimous decision of the High Court jury, Shirley Mickey | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
was found not guilty. Experts from the Scottish Criminal Records | :02:30. | :02:36. | |
Office suspended from Miss identifying fingerprints in the | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
case. David Asprey had his conviction quashed and the Shirley | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
Mickey was a war that the quarter of a million pounds worth of | :02:45. | :02:55. | |
:02:55. | :02:57. | ||
compensation. -- McKie. In the 900 page report on the affair, this was | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
the recommendation. Fingerprint evidence should be recognised as | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
opinion evidence and not fat. Those involved in the criminal-justice | :03:05. | :03:11. | |
system need to assess it, as such, on its merits. The fingerprint | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
services it has implemented many of the recommendations and the report | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
also a leading Dutch experts is that means it can now move on. | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
can move ahead but I would like to see that they have studied the | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
prints themselves, but they do not accept the conclusion of somebody | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
else, but to conclude themselves that a mistake has been made and | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
then the cops can change it. This may not be an end to the cider. The | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
MSP for some of the fingerprint experts dismissed for their part in | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
the investigation continues to claim they have been let down. | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
Everyone who has any contact with this case has been damaged by it. | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
The family of Marion Ross, the family of surely, Sir, but my | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
concern is that the Singapore and officers of the public service, | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
doing a job, who had their reputations ruined and careers | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
destroyed. This inquiry will not put that right. Everyone has been | :04:05. | :04:15. | |
:04:15. | :04:20. | ||
damaged. The force, the Strathclyde police forces that it is still an | :04:20. | :04:30. | |
:04:30. | :04:31. | ||
open investigation into the murder of Moray Ross. -- Marion Ross. I'm | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
joined by Shirley McKie's father Iain McKie, who led the campaign to | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
clear her name, and by the director of Forensic Services at the | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
Scottish Police Services Authority, Tom Nelson. This is it, it is | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
finished, isn't it? Surely, what was her reaction? She was | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
speechless. It is getting an apology after 14 years of no | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
apologies, and the Government and the police pretending that nothing | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
had happened, but it lets us draw a line under things. My attitude is | :04:56. | :05:01. | |
that it is now up to the authorities to sort this mess out. | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
They have been acting in good faith but they were also incompetent and | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
arrogant. And if that was to continue there would be no whiff of | :05:10. | :05:15. | |
it. With the benefit of hindsight, this could have been handled much | :05:15. | :05:22. | |
quicker. It has not been in your interest as a fingerprint service | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
to have this going on for so long. It has been going on for 14 years. | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
Today, with the depth and breadth of the inquiry was vital focus on | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
this particular case, I believe we have an inquiry which allows us to | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
move forward as an organisation. It has hopefully put a lot of the past | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
to bed and we can move forward and implement the recommendations. We | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
have made a lot of changes since 2009 and we will continue to make | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
changes in line with the recommendations of the inquiry. | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
said there had been incompetence but are you happy to accept the | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
conclusion of the report, that what happened was based on human error, | :06:04. | :06:10. | |
and no more than that, Sir Anthony specifically says there was no | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
conspiracy in the fingerprint service, and that there was no | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
conspiracy in my Strathclyde police force. There is little sense in | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
going brother. The report has spoken and they have agreed to | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
abide by the recommendations. Expert evidence in Scotland, the UK | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
and in many places across the world is in chaos. The standards are not | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
there. The judiciary has no idea of the expert evidence and the expels | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
are not tested when they go to court, so, Tom has a lot of work to | :06:40. | :06:47. | |
do, and I wish him well in it. key finding is that fingerprint | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
evidence from now on, rather been treated as infallible, as in the | :06:51. | :06:56. | |
past, should be treated as a matter of expert opinion. I have been a | :06:56. | :07:02. | |
forensic scientist for more than 30 years. I don't understand this new | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
fallibility issue to stop you cannot have issue -- evidence that | :07:05. | :07:12. | |
is infallible. I actually did say that you cannot have evidence which | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
is infallible. That might be your personal view, but that is the way | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
that it was seen. In the report, it spells out exactly how, because the | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
police in Kilmarnock thought of fingerprints as being infallible, | :07:28. | :07:37. | |
they start the suspecting Ian's doctor. -- Ian's daughter. That is | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
why the fingerprint community needs to sit up and listen and take | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
ownership of this report. This report will fundamentally change | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
the way we deal with fingerprints throughout the world. | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
implication is that an expert giving evidence in fingerprints | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
would be dealt with like an expert witness from any other area, and | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
that is a can of worms. You have your expert witness, I have mine, | :08:02. | :08:09. | |
and the challenge each other. evidence is not infallible. We give | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
a probability when the report it. When the report other types of | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
evidence, we give an opinion and the strength of that opinion. That | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
is where fingerprinting needs to go, and to move away from this point | :08:24. | :08:31. | |
were they say we are infallible to the point where we say we are not | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
infallible or 100% confident. that is not quite the way this was | :08:34. | :08:41. | |
working, was it? Not at all. The procedures laid down are fine. But | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
is a cultural problem. It always has been. If people are run -- | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
allowed to remain in an organisation and holder of wrong | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
opinion for 14 years and people in that organisation still hold that | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
wrong opinion, that is a cause for concern. We need to raise standards. | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
I wish Tom well, but it is not just a case of following the report. I | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
don't know how you can alter the culture of an organisation, the | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
service has excellent fingerprint officers, in Aberdeen, in | :09:14. | :09:20. | |
Edinburgh... You both mention that it is important that the | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
fingerprint service internalise his report rather than just reading it. | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
What do you mean by that? We have got six were extremes as an | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
organisation that we developed immediately after the inquiry. We | :09:32. | :09:37. | |
now use those works dreams and does have identified a number of the | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
recommendations and we have delivered on aren't -- on a number | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
of those and we will continue until we deliver on us. So we, as an | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
organisation, have taken us forward. We have only been in charge of | :09:51. | :09:56. | |
fingerprints since 2007. But you people need to understand, and | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
shift the way they might think about the work they are doing. | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
has, and that will not change overnight. Culture will take time | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
to change, but I believe that we have the right people and the right | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
staff in place to make those changes. The other side of this is | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
that the fingerprint officers involved, who, Sir Anthony | :10:16. | :10:22. | |
concludes, believed in what they were doing, it might have been that | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
they made a mistake on two fingerprints, but they genuinely | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
believed they were doing the right thing. They were vilified. There | :10:32. | :10:37. | |
Korea's were current as a result of this. They suffered an injustice, | :10:37. | :10:44. | |
as well. There have been a lot of issues relating to this case, but | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
today, we have a report that allows us to put all that to rest, and to | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
move forward, for Ian's family, for the fingerprint community in | :10:55. | :11:05. | |
:11:05. | :11:05. | ||
Scotland, we need to move forward The SNP administration has claimed | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
economic success in number of areas, not least employment. They even | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
suggested the Chancellor should adopt a Scottish style Plan Mac B. | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
The jobless figures were published today did not look so good for | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
Scotland and policy emanating from Westminster got the bulk of the | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
blame from the Scottish government. But the blame game is no -- by no | :11:25. | :11:34. | |
means confined to spats across Hadrian's Wall. | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
Since taking power, the SNP has frequently hailed falling | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
unemployment and increased employment as a result of their | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
approach to running the Scottish economy. Unemployment still remains | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
too high, but we are doing and the actions we have taken to support | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
for public expenditure, particularly in the face of earlier | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
cast -- cut on the Westminster government is now delivering the | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
returns of a better labour-market here in Scotland. This is the 9th | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
month of a rise in employment in Scotland, and the 5th set of | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
figures of falling our own planet. That is because we pursued a | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
different economic strategy from the one in London. We are facing a | :12:13. | :12:18. | |
40% decline from Westminster of capital investment. I am urging the | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
Chancellor to look at the Scottish experience and see within that | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
experience some of the ingredients of had to get through this | :12:24. | :12:34. | |
recession. Imagine not just a plan B, but a Plan Mac B. | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
But let's not pretend the blame game is an activity unique to the | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
present Scottish government. In his Autumn Statement last month, the | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
Chancellor still chose to blame Labour's economic legacy, despite | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
being in power for 1.5 years. debt challenge is even greater than | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
we thought because the boom was even bigger, the bust even deeper, | :12:55. | :13:01. | |
and the effect will last even longer. His economic and Fiscal | :13:01. | :13:08. | |
Strategy is in tatters. After 18 months in office the verdict is in | :13:08. | :13:17. | |
- a plan a has failed, and it has failed colossally. Then, of course, | :13:17. | :13:22. | |
there is Europe. 26 of the 27 went along with the Franco-German bail- | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
out plan, leaving David Cameron isolated and opting to use | :13:26. | :13:36. | |
:13:36. | :13:39. | ||
Britain's veto. What is on offer is not in Britain's interests, so I | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
vetoed it. David Cameron asked for something that we thought was | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
unacceptable. The United Kingdom, in exchange for giving its | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
agreement, asked for a civic -- specific critical and financial | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
services which, as presented, was a risk to the integrity of the | :13:57. | :14:07. | |
international market. This made compromise impossible. Which brings | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
us back to the Scottish jobs situation. The SNP's run of good | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
news on this fund has come to an abrupt end. An employment is up by | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
25,000 and the rate is now higher than the rest of the UK -- higher. | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
Will Alex Salmond take responsibility? Only up to a point, | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
and he is certainly not blaming Bella Caledonia. Of course we take | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
responsibility for what we can do and we do a great deal to stimulate | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
jobs and employment and attract new investment into Scotland. But we | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
are part of the UK macro-economic framework at the present moment, | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
and the cutbacks which are causing a loss of jobs in the public sector | :14:42. | :14:47. | |
are enforced on the local authorities by Westminster. | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
Confused? Well, that is the idea. This one is not for the faint- | :14:52. | :14:58. | |
hearted. And joined now from Edinburgh by | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
the SNP's Joe FitzPatrick and from Westminster by Labour's Willie Bain. | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
Joe FitzPatrick, when the unemployment figures were published | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
last month, John Swinney claimed that the SNP's Plan Mac B was | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
responsible for unemployment being lower than the UK average here. Now | :15:14. | :15:19. | |
it is higher than the UK average - that presumably means that Plan Mac | :15:19. | :15:26. | |
B is not working? Let's look at the figures in their entirety. There | :15:26. | :15:31. | |
are now 200,000 more people in work in Scotland than they were in 1999. | :15:31. | :15:40. | |
Employment in Scotland is higher than the rest of the UK. You are | :15:40. | :15:45. | |
quoting back to 1999?! I am saying that the figures are higher now | :15:45. | :15:51. | |
than in 1999. Why is that relevant to anything? Let me finish. | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
Economic inactivity is lower in Scotland than it is in the rest of | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
the UK, and employment is high in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
Clearly, the unemployment figures are disappointing which is why the | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
first minister has taken action. Does clutching at straws come to | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
mind? You specifically claimed credit when the unemployment was | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
lower than the UK average, why not take responsibility for the fact | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
that it is now above UK average? What the Scottish government is | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
doing is taking what action they can within the limited powers they | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
have. That is why last week the first minister created a new | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
ministerial post to tackle the particular problem of youth | :16:30. | :16:37. | |
unemployment. I am sure joy among Scottish Youth is unconfined! | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
Willie Bain, what is your alternative, given that you have no | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
more money to spend than the SNP. By and large, pumping money into | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
infrastructure projects is exactly what you want to do, too. Good | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
evening. I think it is clear that Scotland faces a crisis of growth, | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
jobs and demand, and that is why we need a combination of policies from | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
the Westminster government to increase demand in the economy by | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
putting money back into people's pockets through a cut in VAT, a cut | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
in National Insurance for a new start workers to help growing | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
employment. Frankly, the poor figures that we have seen together, | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
with 93,000 young people being out of work, there is a responsibility | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
for the disastrous decision John Swinney made over the past two | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
years to cut capital spending, a rate 2.5 times more quickly than | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
even the Chancellor did. But he only had to cut it that far because | :17:29. | :17:36. | |
the SNP increased capital spending by more than the UK in 2010 - 2011, | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
and surely that is a policy that in the middle of a recession you would | :17:39. | :17:42. | |
have thought was good. Don't blame them for the logical consequences | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
of that. The logical consequences were shown by Vic Fraser Alan | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
institute last month which said that the cuts in capital | :17:50. | :17:55. | |
expenditure lead to a 2.3% drop in construction by the second quarter | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
of this year. If you look at the Bank of Scotland's PMI report | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
issued on Monday, we can see that manufacturing output is falling for | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
the third month in a row, new orders in the private sector are | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
falling. There is a lack of demand are the Scottish economy and both | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
governments, the SNP government at Holy Rood, and the Tory lead | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
government at Westminster, are culpable for this crisis that we | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
face. Joe FitzPatrick, you were calling lots of fancy statistics. | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
Let me make a statistical point to you. Unemployment in Scotland is | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
now only 8,000 away from its peak at the trough of the recession. | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
That 8,000 is about one-third of the increase that we saw in the | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
last three months alone. It is hardly anything to be proud of, is | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
it? It is something we have to take very seriously, which is why today | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
the first minister called for a job summit so that the devolved | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
administrations can go jointly, and that would include the Welsh First | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
Minister who is dealing with worse but islanders that we have in | :18:57. | :19:05. | |
Scotland, do go and lobby the UK Exchequer for that Plan Mac B for | :19:05. | :19:07. | |
that infrastructure investment that we need. I think we did exactly the | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
right thing when we brought forward the capital spending in Scotland. | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
It was agreed by Parliament with the support of the Labour Party, | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
and I think we can work with the Labour Party on this as well. | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
Briefly, Willie Bain, presumably you want a jobs summit as well? | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
think we need to create jobs. The time for talking is done. The time | :19:28. | :19:37. | |
for doing his head. We have seven times as many people chasing each | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
vacancy in the Scottish economy. Both governments need to create | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
jobs in the next few months as a matter of urgency. Thank you both | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
very much. A quick look at Berra's front pages. | :19:49. | :19:56. | |
Talking about what we just talked about - Alex Salmond under fire. | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
And the Guardian - tensions rise as the UK tries to rip up Europe deal. | :20:00. | :20:10. | |
:20:10. | :20:14. | ||
There is a storm brewing, as I'm sure you are aware. Before that | :20:14. | :20:20. | |
the fork many of us on Thursday. They could be an icy start, but | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
many of us will have a reasonable day with some sunshine in between | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
the showers. Quite a mixture through the afternoon, for example. | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
A band of showers pushing up through parts of the Midlands. Some | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
will be a wintery, but mostly will fall as rain are on the lower | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
levels. A few showers getting into the London area. Temperatures | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
around seven or eight degrees. The winds are not excessively strong, | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
but it does turn wet and windy across the far South West of | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
England as we end the day - a sign of things to come. That rain | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
pushing into the far South West of Wales as well. Before that happens, | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
most of Wales having a reasonable interlude. Some sunshine through | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
the afternoon. Northern Ireland, too, after a showery period, things | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
will dry out for a time in the afternoon. Scotland looks like | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
having a cold day with lingering fog patches and services could well | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
be quite slippery. The fun starts as we go into the night time. Very | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
wet and windy in the southern half of the UK. And yes, there is snow. | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
The worst of the conditions will gradually clear way on Friday, but | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
we will be left with a very cold winds and temperatures struggling. | :21:27. | :21:30. |