By Lars Niven

THE STORY behind one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in Scottish legal history, which resulted in two innocent men spending 10 years behind bars, is to be broadcast by BBC Scotland next week.

The programme will take a fresh look at the murder of Drew Forsyth and how Fife Police officers withheld evidence that led to the conviction of Steven Johnston and Billy Allison.

Johnston and Allison, from Dunfermline, maintained their innocence, but were convicted by jurors who did not hear evidence that Mr Forsyth had been seen alive days after the prosecution claimed he had been murdered.

The pair were eventually cleared by Appeal Court judges who ruled there had been a miscarriage of justice and condemned some of the key officers involved in the inquiry.

They were said to have suppressed evidence, ignored witnesses and misled prosecuting authorities to secure a conviction.

Johnston and Allison had their murder convictions thrown out by Appeal Court judges in 2006.

The pair were sentenced to life in 1996 for battering and strangling 34-year-old friend Drew Forsyth.

They claimed Mr Forsyth had only been left with a bloody nose after a fight.

Trial judge Lord Macfadyen said at the time the pair should spend at least 12 years in jail before being considered for parole.

Johnston (44) and Allison (43) took their case to the Appeal Court after it was revealed the police had withheld vital information from their defence team and prosecutors.

Statements were obtained from a number of witnesses who said they saw Mr Forsyth alive days after he was supposed to have been murdered but the police never handed the statements over.

The Appeal Court judges ruled that Fife Police “suppressed” the evidence, which led jurors to convict Johnston and Allison wrongly and cause a miscarriage of justice.

After being freed, Johnston said he was “bitter and angry” and would seek compensation.

“What has gone on in this case are not mistakes,” he said.

“These are deliberate actions by the police and especially the guy in charge of the investigation.”

It is understood Mr Johnston recently turned down a compensation offer of £500,000.

The pair were freed in December 2005 after the judges heard for themselves the evidence that was kept from the jury at their original trial.

Lord Gill, sitting with Lords Osborne and Johnston, said the trial was unfair and the verdicts returned by the jury represented a miscarriage of justice.

“The court has found that, with one exception, the new witnesses are credible and reliable,” he said in March, 2006.

“In the light of the new evidence the court has reached the conclusion that the significance of the evidence is such that the jury’s verdict, returned in ignorance of it, is to be considered as a miscarriage of justice.

“For that reason alone the court would have quashed the convictions.

“However, the court has also heard extensive evidence relating to the conduct of the murder inquiry by officers from Fife Police.

“It has reached the conclusion that the police in this case suppressed evidence pointing to the deceased’s having been alive after November 3 and altered certain statements, in one case on the crucial question of date of death.

“The court’s final conclusion is that the police deliberately misled the Crown in a serious way and thereby induced the Crown to adopt the police theory of the date of the murder and to challenge the credibility and reliability of any defence witness who cast doubt on it.”

In their written judgment the judges pointed out three detectives who played a key role in the inquiry, Detective Inspector Richard Munro, Detective Sergeant John Nessel and Detective Inspector Derek McEwan, had all left the force.

Mr Munro was grilled for three days at the Appeal Court.

Lord Gill said of his evidence, “We did not find Mr Munro to be a credible witness.

“He was taken point-by-point through the inadequacies and irregularities in the inquiry procedures.

“He was unable to give us a satisfactory explanation of any of them.

“Much of his evidence was untruthful in our view.”

Lord Gill added that the police misconduct did not end with the trial.

In February 1997 it was stated the local procurator fiscal was satisfied police had not intended deliberately to mislead him.

However, his lordship said, “That is not our conclusion.

“On the fuller information available to us we conclude that the police deliberately misled the Crown in a serious way.”

Mr Forsyth was supposed to have died during a drunken row with Johnston and Allison on November 3, 1995.

His body was said to have lain in his flat in Milton Green, Dunfermline, for six days before it was found by his mother.

However, several witnesses claimed to have seen him alive and well in the days after November 3.

Johnston and Allison’s case was one of the first examined by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission and at its recommendation the Appeal Court heard the fresh evidence.

Mr Forsyth’s killer was never caught.

Steven Morrison, the lawyer who represented Johnston and Allison, said but for the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission the pair would almost certainly still be behind bars.

The commission had the power to go through police files and, after it launched a review of the case, it found the missing statements and incriminating memos.

Some of the memos were from officers recommending initial witness statements be followed up, but the response from the man in charge of the investigation was to mark them “no further action.”

Mr Morrison told The Courier last night, “The boys were legitimately targeted by the police to begin with.

“There was evidence that put them in the deceased’s house on the evening of Friday, the third of November.

“Some blood-stained clothing belonging to Billy Allison was recovered.”

Mr Morrison said, beyond that, it was evidence from what they called members of the drinking set.

The police built their case around the fact that Mr Forsyth was killed on November 3.

His body was not found until the following Thursday, November 9.

The defence already had six witnesses who claimed to have seen him alive days after the prosecution said he had been murdered.

In spite of that, Johnston and Allison were convicted.

They had one appeal thrown out, but fresh hope emerged when Mr Morrison contacted the commission.

He said, “We knew the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission was about to come into being.

“Without them the boys would still be in the jail, in my opinion.

“They uncovered another four or five witnesses, which included two council workers who went down to the house on Tuesday the seventh of November looked through the window in daylight and saw no body.

“That was massively significant.”

A newsagent also said he saw Mr Forsyth in his shop the day after he was said to be dead and a barmaid who knew the dead man was convinced she saw him the following Wednesday.

“Not only did they find more live witnesses, but they uncovered evidence that the police had taken a deliberate decision to effectively hide this stuff,” Mr Morrison added.

“There were various memos, or actions, as the police call them.

“A police officer would say I’ve spoken to one of these witnesses and I think it needs following up, but the senior investigating officer, Richard Munro, had indicated ‘NFA,’ or no further action on these things.”

Lothian and Borders Police were called in by the Crown after Johnston and Allison were freed and ordered to investigate Fife’s handling of the case.

They presented their findings to the authorities in November and it is understood the file is still being examined.

The programme is the first in a three-part series put together by BBC Scotland’s investigations unit as part of an in-depth look at the country’s criminal justice system.

Reporter Mark Daly, who went undercover in 2003 for the BBC documentary The Secret Policeman, carries out the investigation.

Entitled Corrupt Cops: The Inconvenient Truths, it is to be shown on BBC One Scotland next Wednesday at 10.40 pm.

The second programme examines the relatively high number of attacks on Scotland’s police officers.

It reveals how police in Scotland are in more danger of being attacked than their counterparts in the rest of the UK and western Europe.

The programme examines the trend of assaults and contains footage of some of the attacks suffered by police officers.

The third episode tackles the issue of prison overcrowding and examines the effectiveness of constructing ever- larger prisons.