|
HM Advocate V Sheridan And Sheridan
''Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan'' was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to an earlier civil case called '' Sheridan v News Group Newspapers''.In Scotland criminal prosecutions in the High Court are normally brought in the name of the Lord Advocate. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, whereas Gail was acquitted. Background In 2006, Tommy Sheridan, formerly convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), successfully sued the newspaper ''News of the World'' for defamation after it printed a series of articles containing allegations that an MSP had had affairs and visited a sex club. Sheridan was awarded £200,000 in damages, which he has still not received pending an appeal. Controversy over the case led to a split in the SSP shortly afterwards, with Sheridan forming a breakaway party, Solidarity. In August 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Court Of Justiciary
The High Court of Justiciary () is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Court building in the Old Town in Edinburgh, or in dedicated buildings in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The High Court sometimes sits in various smaller towns in Scotland, where it uses the local sheriff court building. As an appeal court, the High Court sits only in Edinburgh. On one occasion the High Court of Justiciary sat outside Scotland, at Zeist in the Netherlands during the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, as the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. At Zeist the High Court sat both as a trial court, and an appeal court for the initial appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. The president of the High Court is the Lord Justice General, who holds office ''ex officio'' by virtue of being Lord President of the Court of Session, and his depute is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Prentice
Alexander "Alex" Prentice KC is a leading Scottish lawyer. He has held senior posts at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the body which normally carries out prosecutions in Scotland. He became an assistant Principal Advocate Depute in 2009, and then the Principal Advocate Depute. After the office restructured in 2011, he became the senior crown counsel. Prentice qualified as a solicitor in 1983 and as a Solicitor Advocate in 1994, and practised as a defence solicitor for 21 years. In 2004 he became the first Solicitor Advocate from outside the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to be appointed as an Advocate Depute. He was appointed as a Senior Advocate Depute in 2006 and became a QC in 2007. Prentice has prosecuted a number of significant cases including the shotgun murder at the "Marmion" public house in Edinburgh, the murder of Jolanta Bledaite, HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan, the Murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar, and HM Advocate v Salmond. In 2012 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Information Commissioner's Office
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It is the independent regulatory office (national data protection authority) dealing with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 across the UK; and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and, to a limited extent, in Scotland. When they audit an organisation they use Symbiant's audit software. Role of the Information Commissioner The Information Commissioner is an independent official appointed by the Crown. The Commissioner's decisions are subject to appeal to an independent First-tier Tribunal, tribunal and the Courts of the United Kingdom, courts. The Commissioner's miss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Watson (Labour Politician)
Thomas Anthony Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest (born 8 January 1967) is a British politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2019. A member of the House of Lords since 2022, he was the member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East from 2001 to 2019. Born in Sheffield, Watson was raised in Kidderminster, where he was educated at King Charles I School. He first became involved in Labour Party and trade-union activism while studying at the University of Hull and was chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students from 1992 to 1993. After working in marketing and advertising, he began working full-time for the Labour Party, including on its 1997 general election campaign, and then for the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union. Elected MP for West Bromwich East at the 2001 general election, Watson was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans from May to September 2006 and Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Bird (editor)
Bob Bird is the former editor of the Scottish edition of the defunct ''News of the World'' tabloid. He is best known for the widespread media coverage over his role in two trials involving former Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan: the 2006 Sheridan v News Group Newspapers defamation case and the 2010 HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan perjury case. Sheridan v News Group Newspapers In the original trial in 2006, Sheridan sued News International, publishers of the Sunday newspaper the News of the World, for defamation, after it published stories making allegations that the married MSP had been indulging extramarital affairs. During the trial, Bob Bird, as editor of the newspaper, testified that he had authorised the payment of £14,000 to two women in return for their story. Sheridan won the case, and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The News of the World launched an immediate appeal against the verdict. HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan The Scottish News of the World subsequently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan McCombes
Alan William McCombes (born 1955) has been a leading member of the Scottish Socialist Party for several years, and was the editor of the ''Scottish Socialist Voice'' until 2003. With Tommy Sheridan, he was also author of ''Imagine: A Socialist Vision for the 21st Century'', described by Tony Benn as "one of the very best books I have ever read on the subject of socialism". Political career Militant tendency McCombes first became involved in socialist politics in the 1970s, as a member of the Militant (Trotskyist group), Militant group. Together with Tommy Sheridan he played a leading role in the anti-Tax per head, poll tax movement. His 1988 pamphlet, ''How To Beat The Poll Tax'', written a year before the tax was introduced, set out the strategy of a Scotland-wide united mass non-payment campaign. In 1992 McCombes was a leading figure in the persuading Militant in Scotland to break with Labour resulting in the creation of Scottish Militant Labour. Throughout the 1990s, he ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trial By Jury In Scotland
Trial by jury in Scotland is used in the courts of Scotland in solemn procedure for trial on indictment before a judge and jury for serious criminal cases, and in certain civil cases (mainly personal injury claims). Criminal procedure in Scotland is generally regulated by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (as amended) and various Acts of Adjournal passed by the High Court of Justiciary. Juries in these cases consist of 15 people; if jurors drop out e.g. because of illness the trial can continue with a minimum of 12 jurors. In criminal trials conviction is on the basis of a majority verdict, with eight jurors required to decide that the accused is guilty; should fewer than eight jurors declare a guilty verdict then the accused is acquitted, so a hung jury is not possible in Scottish criminal law. In the past some people were executed on majority verdicts in Scotland, such as Susan Newell, who had one juror dissenting. The jury has a choice of three verdicts: guil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amicus Curiae
An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a Party (law), party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an ''amicus'' brief will be considered is typically under the court's discretion. The phrase is legal Latin and the origin of the term has been dated to 1605–1615. The scope of ''amici curiae'' is generally found in the cases where broad public interests are involved and concerns regarding civil rights are in question. In American law, an ''amicus curiae'' typically refers to what in some other jurisdictions is known as an intervenor: a person or organization who requests to provide legal submissions so as to offer a relevant alternative or additional perspective regarding the matters in dispute. In the American courts, the amicus may be referred to as an ''amicus'' brief. In other jurisdictions, such as Canadian law, Canada, an ''am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aamer Anwar
Aamer Anwar (born 30 December 1967) is a British political activist and lawyer of Pakistani origin. He was an active participant in the Stop the War Coalition, and campaigned against the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles. He has been a longstanding critic of the Dungavel Detention Centre for failed asylum seekers, and is a trustee of the Time for Inclusive Education charity for LGBT-inclusive education in Scottish schools. Early life Anwar was born in Manchester, England to Pakistani parents on 30 December 1967 and lived in Liverpool before moving to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1986 to study mechanical engineering at the University of Glasgow to join the Royal Air Force. He became a student activist and led a campaign against alleged racism at the city's Dental Hospital, which helped introduce anonymous marking across all faculties at the university. He left engineering to study sociology and politics and was still a student when he was arrested by police officers for illegally flypos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul McBride
Paul McBride QC (13 November 1964 – 4 March 2012) was a Scottish criminal lawyer based in Edinburgh. He was a board member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board, and a former vice chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association. He died suddenly on a trip to Pakistan. Education McBride, an only child from a working-class family, attended the private Catholic Jesuit school St Aloysius' College, Glasgow and thereafter studied law at the University of Strathclyde from the age of 16. He graduated with an LLB aged 19, and joined a solicitors firm in Ayrshire. After completing his two-year traineeship with the firm he devilled with a practising advocate for nine months, and was admitted advocate in 1988. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2000 aged 36, one of the youngest ever in the UK. Legal career McBride was very well known for his intelligence, his skillful advancement of the merits of Scottish Law as well as his courage. He often represented high-profile clie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockerbie Bombing
Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of the Seas" was destroyed by a bomb while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew aboard. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, the event, which became known as the Lockerbie bombing, is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom. Following a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in 1991. After protracted negotiations and United Nations sanctions, in 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
