The controversial death of a young man whose body was found in a harbour 20 years ago is being re-examined by police.
Labourer Kevin McLeod, 24, was found in Wick in Caithness in February 1997 after a night out.
He had sustained serious injuries to his abdomen and a fatal accident inquiry ended a year later with an open verdict.
Police said at the time that his death was accidental, but his family believed he was murdered, claiming he was beaten, and have consistently criticised the force for its handling of the case.
The FAI also criticised the force's initial handling of the case, including a lack of senior officers, door-to-door inquiries and the failure to trace a man who was seen in a confrontation with Mr McLeod the night he was last seen alive.
Concerns were also raised by the family around a failure to keep and submit Mr McLeod's clothing and not acknowledging marks on his body at an early stage of the inquiry.
It led to a review by a police watchdog, which said the then Northern Constabulary behaved with ''institutional arrogance'' in the way it handled complaints from Mr McLeod's parents Hugh and June.
The review also ordered the force's chief constable, Ian Latimer, to apologise to the family in person.
Mr Latimer said the force "had rewritten the crime management handbook" in the wake of the case.
The McLeod family have continued to campaign for a new investigation into the death and police have now confirmed officers are "assessing the information".
The new development in the case follows discussions between the McLeod family and Police Scotland's chief constable Phil Gormley.
When Mr Gormley took over as Chief Constable last year the McLeod family urged him to launch a cold case review.
They told Mr Gormley that the procurator fiscal at the time in Wick had received a report from the pathologist in Inverness that Mr McLeod had a burst liver and internal bleeding, possibly consistent with a kicking received several hours before death.
The fiscal had instructed it be treated as a murder inquiry. But the police did not act accordingly.
In 2013 the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner John McNeill ordered the force to carry out a review as to whether they were instructed in this way.
Mr McNeill's report confirmed the fiscal's position that he contacted the detective sergeant leading the investigation and "instructed that the matter was potentially a murder inquiry and should be treated as such".
However the detective sergeant leading the investigation, who subsequently died, concluded that the injuries sustained by Mr McLeod were caused by quayside bollards he came into contact with when he fell into the water.
Northern Constabulary found no record of the fiscal's instruction.
A Police Scotland spokesman yesterday said: "Officers from Specialist Crime Division are currently assessing the information relating to the death of Kevin McLeod.
"We continue to engage with the McLeod family and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
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