A FORMER top prosecutor has claimed the Crown Office will be "breathing a sigh of relief" at Nat Fraser's conviction after the Supreme Court quashed the verdict the first time round.

Brian McConnachie, vice-chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association, said prosecutors could have faced heavy criticism had the verdict not gone their way.

Fraser was originally convicted of hiring a hitman to kill his wife in 2003, but an appeal which led to a lengthy legal dispute over undisclosed evidence resulted in a retrial.

Mr McConnachie said: "I'm sure they are breathing a sigh of relief in the Crown Office because no doubt difficulties with the first case would have been held up by many observers had it not gone their way.

"People would have suggested a guilty man had been acquitted because of a blunder by the Crown and I suppose there would have been some merit in that suggestion because everyone seems to accept that it was a blunder."

The appeal was initially heard at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh where judges refused it. When the Supreme Court went on to grant it, the SNP called for that avenue of appeal to be closed off.