Mr Colin McKerracher 27 Donnini Court
Chief Constable South Beach Road
Grampian Police Ayr KA7 1JP
Police HQ
Queen Street.
Aberdeen.
24 September 2008
Dear Chief Constable,
After over 11 years of fighting for the truth to be revealed in my daughter’s case I thought I had lost the capacity to be shocked. You however have resurrected that ability by your comments at Fiona McBride’s employment tribunal reported in today’s ‘Herald’.
‘Earlier, police chief Colin McKerracher, chief constable of Grampian Police and a member of the SPSA board, expressed "great sympathy" for her predicament.’
You are reported as saying that you have sympathy for someone who in wrongly identifying two fingerprints and refusing to accept this fact brought my daughter to the edge of suicide, saw an innocent man jailed for life and brought the science of fingerprinting and the SCRO to its knees. It could also be argued that her failure to speak the truth has led to the present threats being made against the Aberdeen and Edinburgh forensic labs.
Given that numerous enquiries, the government and Crown Office, ACPOS and the SPSA have all accepted that her and her colleagues were wrong in identifying Shirley’s print and that of Marion Ross can you tell me why you as a member of the SPSA Board and President of ACPOS have “great sympathy” for her and exactly what is ‘her predicament’?
Your solicitous comments re Ms McBride are at complete odds with the treatment of fingerprint expert Gary Dempster a former employee of yours. Since standing up for truth and justice in speaking out against the SCRO mistakes he has been consistently bullied and oppressed by yourself and his present employers at the SPSA.
Do you accept that as a member of the SPSA Board you have a duty of care towards Gary and a duty to avoid public comments that are seen to act against his interests?
It might be of course that you have been wrongly quoted or taken out of context and before the judicial enquiry I would appreciate being assured that this is the case.
Otherwise I must sadly accept that when informed some time ago that you had stated that you believed my daughter was in the murder house the informer was speaking the truth and that even today you are continuing to circulate misinformation and assist in covering up the truth.
I look forward to hearing from you by return.
Sincerely,
Iain McKie
Copied: Mr George Kay, Interim Convenor SPSA Board.
General Secretary ACPOS
Martin Greig, Convenor, Grampian Police Joint Board
Mike Rumbles MSP
Alex Neil MSP