By successfully challenging body searches of young children by Police Scotland, Alison McInnes, MSP has demonstrated the importance of having strong willed liberal representation in the Scottish Parliament ("Police Scotland agree to scrap stop and search operations on children", The Herald, June, 19).
There now seems to be a dawning realisation among senior police officers and the Scottish Government that very young children lack the legal capacity to consent to such an intrusion. In challenging this, Alison McInnes has struck a victory for civil liberties in Scotland.
One now wonders what is to be done about those scores of searches that have already occurred in such circumstances. A search is a prima facie assault, which can of course be rendered lawful if a sound legal basis exists, for instance by obtaining the freely given the consent of the individual being searched. However, if the individual in question is legally incapable of giving consent and no other lawful authority exists, any search conduct may constitute an unlawful assault. If we are to accept that no one is above the law, any police officer who has undertaken such a search without lawful authority has breached it. Quite who would investigate any complaint arising is another matter altogether, given the creation of a single Scottish police force where all personnel fall under the senior leadership team that presumably sanctioned the practise in the first place.
Allan C Steele,
22 Forres Avenue,
Giffnock.
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