A Dundee sheriff said he has “grave concerns” over the Procurator Fiscal’s office after it took more than three months for prosecutors to disclose evidence and CCTV footage to defence agents which only arrived three days before a jury trial was due to start.
Sheriff Alastair Brown has asked for Andrew McIntyre, Procurator Fiscal for sheriff and jury cases in the north of Scotland, to report back to him on the reasons why the disclosures were not made available until Wednesday for a jury trial which was supposed to start today.
The issue arose on Friday when the case, against Jade Louise Laing, 31, of Commercial Street, Dundee, called in order for the trial to be adjourned until later in the assize and for the timebar on the case to be extended.
Solicitor Ann Johnston told the sheriff the disclosures, which had arrived in the procurator fiscal’s office on August 13, only turned up in her office at 4pm on Wednesday.
She said she was suddenly presented with a document containing 33 witness statements and 89 pages of productions, along with three DVDs of CCTV footage of an incident involving Ms Laing.
She told the court: “My motion is to adjourn the trial. It was supposed to be a priority trial on Monday December 2, it had been continued to gain the disclosures but they only arrived on Wednesday. ”
She revealed further disclosures had also arrived in her office on Friday morning, meaning she had no time to prepare a proper defence.
Depute fiscal Trina Sinclair said there was no opposition to Ms Johnston’s motion and asked the trial be adjourned to later in the same assize and for the timebar to be extended to accommodate the trial.
However, Sheriff Brown refused the motion and the case will now go to trial early next year.
She added she had problems with three witnesses who had not yet been cited for the trial and confirmed she was not able to give a reason for that.
Sheriff Brown told Ms Sinclair that, while it was no fault of her own, it was unacceptable fiscals in court were not in possession of information as to why witnesses had not been cited.
He said: “I express grave concerns that disclosure was not made until this week.
“I repeatedly hear that disclosure has not been made early and I hear that repeatedly in custody cases not just in this court and not just in this city.
“I also repeatedly hear that witnesses have not been cited or that the procurator fiscal in court does not know if they have been cited or not.
“I repeatedly hear that procurator fiscals in court are not able to give answers to questions because they have not been instructed by fiscals who are not appearing in court.”
He told Ms Sinclair: “Those issues give me grave concerns and I would like Mr McIntyre to be in touch with me.”
Jade Laing is accused of, on August 2 this year, at Constitution Road, assaulting Nicola Buchanan, c/o Police Scotland, seizing her by the throat, restricting her breathing and pushing her on the body, knocking her to the ground, causing her to strike her head on the ground, rendering her unconscious, all to her injury and robbing her of a purse and contents, while on bail.
She is also accused of breaching a bail condition and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner designed to cause fear and alarm, shout and gesticulate at Nicola Buchanan, while on bail.
awilson@thecourier.co.uk