MEDIUMS YESTERDAY petitioned the Scottish Parliament calling for a pardon for all those convicted of being witches, writes Steve Bargeton, political editor.

Throughout Scottish history some 4000 people, mainly women, were prosecuted and often put to death for witchcraft—around 350 from Fife and 250 from Tayside.

The last person to be convicted under the 1735 Witchcraft Act was Helen Duncan, born in Callander in Perthshire and who moved to Dundee to work at the age of 16.

She spent nine months in Holloway Prison in London after being found guilty in 1944 of using her powers during a seance to reveal that a British warship had been sunk by a German U-boat months before the information had been officially released.

While in prison Helen Duncan was visited by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was said to be outraged by her trial and conviction.

Later Churchill ordered a report into why the Witchcraft Act, 1735 was used in a modern Court of Justice.

At Holyrood yesterday public petitions committee convener Labour MSP Frank McAveety accepted a petition from a group of self-styled mediums called Full Moon Investigators.

It calls on MSPs, “to urge the Scottish Government to take necessary action to grant a posthumous pardon to all persons convicted in Scotland under all witchcraft legislation.”

Medium Roberta Gordon said, “We want to see Helen Duncan pardoned.

“We would like to see modern day society say sorry to all those convicted of witchcraft.”

The Scottish Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1736 when the British Parliament decided to repeal the parallel English act.

The 1736 Act abolished the crime of witchcraft and replaced it by a new crime of “pretended witchcraft” which carried a maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment.