A journalist who uncovered alleged flaws in a police investigation into the unsolved murder of a prostitute 10 years ago believes he was spied on by police without any judicial approval being sought.
The allegation made by BBC journalist Eamon O'Connor will raise fresh concerns over claims that the national force breached rules by obtaining communications data without first going through the courts.
A recent report from the Interception of Communications Commissioner Office (IOCCO) revealed that two UK forces have breached a new code of conduct, which came into force in March. Police Scotland has refused to confirm reports that it is one of the organisations.
Mr O'Connor appeared on the BBC's Scotland 2015 programme to explain his belief that he had been put under surveillance after looking into what went wrong with the original investigation into the murder of Emma Caldwell, a 27-year-old heroin addict who had been working as a prostitute. She was discovered dead in woods near Biggar in May 2005.
He believes as a result of his reports on the investigation on BBC File on Four investigation into the police inquiry transmitted in May this year on Radio 4, the Lord Advocate gave instructions to Police Scotland to reinvestigate the case.
Two weeks ago he gave a witness statement to the team that are reinvestigating and later was contacted by a source who wanted to speak to him using an encrypted phone.
The source told him that he had been told by a senior Police Scotland figure that reporters had been monitored by the Counter Corruption Unit and that it was believed he had been one of those targeted.
Police should get the approval of a judge before using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to identify a journalist's sources.
He says he has asked Police Scotland to confirm or deny if he had been under surveillance but they refused to comment.
The File on Four investigation revealed that a local suspect was dropped in favour of prosecuting four Turkish men.
The programme revealed that officers who wanted to charge the local man, one of Emma's clients, were stopped by senior detectives investigating the Turkish suspects.
One of the Turkish men, who was charged with murdering Ms Caldwell, was awarded an out-of-court settlement after suing police for wrongful arrest.
Ms Caldwell was last seen alive in the Govanhill area of Glasgow in April 2005. Her family said she turned to drugs, then prostitution to feed her habit, following the death of her sister.
A Police Scotland source said it would not comment on such matters (relating to the IOCCO issue) in respect of any individual.
The revelations came after Labour lodged a motion at the Scottish Parliament demanding "full transparency from the Scottish Government about what exactly it knows regarding the allegations about spying on journalists and their sources".
Scottish Labour justice spokesman Hugh Henry said Police Scotland "owe it the public to come clean".
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