THE Crown office has said it has seen the contents of a draft report into botched forensic evidence in the Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll case but will not reveal details as it may prejudice a future case.
Concerns had been raised that no-one in the Scottish justice system had seen the full report, prompting fears that lessons have not been learned since Ross Monaghan stood trial accused of Mr Carroll's murder.
Mr Monaghan walked free from court amid claims the police had undue influence on the forensic scientist in the case. Judge Lord Brailsford also criticised a police raid on Mr Monaghan's Glasgow home which ran the risk of evidence being contaminated. A Crown Office spokesman said: "The Crown has had sight of the conclusions and recommendations made by the Forensic Regulator and also a draft of their full report.
"Following consideration of the report it was concluded that publication presents a significant risk of prejudice to ongoing live proceedings as it contains a detailed account ... and an analysis of that evidence.
"The murder of Kevin Carroll remains a live investigation and a warrant has been issued for a suspect in the murder and proceedings are active in terms of the Contempt of Court Act 1981."
He added: "When proceedings are at an end the responsible authorities will publish the report."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article