SACKED fingerprint expert Fiona McBride yesterday denied she had been trying to reopen the debate about whether a print taken from a murder scene had been wrongly identified as that of former police officer Shirley McKie.

SACKED fingerprint expert Fiona McBride yesterday denied she had been trying to reopen the debate about whether a print taken from a murder scene had been wrongly identified as that of former police officer Shirley McKie.

Miss McBride, 43, who claims she was unfairly dismissed and is fighting for her job back with the Scottish Police Service Authority, believes the reason for her dismissal was her involvement in the McKie case.

A Glasgow employment tribunal heard earlier that Miss McBride, from Clydebank, was sacked on the grounds of capability after she failed to consider redeployment to another role.

Her position as a fingerprint expert was untenable because she could no longer appear in court as an expert witness.

Miss McBride was one of four specialists who had identified a fingerprint taken from the scene of a murder as that of Shirley McKie. Ms McKie denied she had been at the home of murder victim Marion Ross at the trial of murder accused David Asbury, who was subsequently convicted and jailed for life.

Ms McKie was charged with perjury but acquitted and later awarded £750,000 in settlement of a civil damages claim against Scottish ministers. Mr Asbury was acquitted and released after Ms McKie's perjury trial.

Former Lord Advocate Colin Boyd told the Scottish Executive's Justice 1 inquiry into the affair that it was unlikely the Crown could use any of the experts involved in the McKie case in a trial again, as it could shift focus at the trial from the accused.

Miss McBride has consistently denied the print was misidentified.

She told the seventh day of her unfair dismissal claim that she believed the reason for her dismissal was her involvement in the McKie trial.

She disputed that she had accepted in May 2006 that she understood why the Crown would not take the risk of her giving evidence in court.

She said it was a complete surprise when, in April 2007 when the SPSA took over the fingerprint bureau, she was asked to discuss redeployment.