The petitioners were convicted of murder in 2010 and were sentenced to life imprisonment at separate institutions. They were in a relationship and this relationship continued to their imprisonment.  In 2014, a petition was refused which challenged the decision to refuse them inter prison visits. During the course of the [...]

A lifelong restriction of liberty order (OLR) is a lifelong sentence and if an OLR is imposed the individual will be placed on a risk management plan for life. Over the past 15 years around 200 OLRs have been imposed. For a judge to impose an OLR it is the [...]

Sam Imrie has been jailed after glorifying terrorist acts by mass murderers online and encouraging terrorism.  The 24-year-old posted onto Telegram and Facebook statements which glorified terrorism acts by terrorists Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant, amongst others.  At trial at Edinburgh High Court Imrie was convicted of two charges under [...]

Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain QC, has recently claimed that trials without a jury ‘don’t impact on the right to a fair trial’. In discussing the use of juries Ms Bain said that ‘we need to look at the suitability of a jury to prosecute a case’.  This interview took place [...]

An Edinburgh sheriff has refused to order the extradition of a Polish man who was wanted in Poland to serve a six month custodial sentence. The man was wanted for mercantile fraud. However, the sheriff refused the order on the basis that it would have a disproportionate impact upon his [...]

A sheriff in Hamilton Sheriff Court has convicted a man under section 1A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 after a car slid off the back of a car transporter and injured a pedestrian. On the 5th of December 2019, Gordon Maule, had collected cars going to auction from Glasgow and was [...]

The global pandemic has resulted in a backlog of cases which could take up to five years to be resolved. The Scottish justice system is under significant strain as lockdown resulted in all, other than the most serious of cases, to be postponed to a later date.  Officials have been [...]

Jordan Dickson, 25, has been sentenced to a 19-year custodial sentence at Glasgow High Court, for the murder of his friend Craig Sneddon, 41.  The deceased was left with 18 wounds after a knife attack in Dalkeith.  On the 17th of January 2021 the deceased was left with 18 wounds [...]

Vaiva Sutinyte who was convicted of sending offensive messages to her MP has lost an appeal against the sheriff’s decision to repel a no case to answer submission.  In February 2021 the appellant emailed Mr Grady on multiple occasions from 6:04am until 10:36pm. She stated that she wanted to take [...]

The High Court of Justiciary has upheld the decision of a preliminary judge in respect of an application made by a man charged with three counts of rape, to reject the introduction of evidence related to events following the sexual encounter as libelled in the third charge. This included legal [...]