James Alexander Mackay QPM retired as Deputy Chief Constable of

Tayside Police Tayside Police was a territorial police force covering the Scottish council areas of Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross (the former Tayside region) until 1 April 2013, at which point it was subsumed into Police Scotland. The total area co ...

in 2001. He has had considerable experience of criminal investigation and major inquiries. He is especially interested in forensic science and has served on national committees particularly in the field of

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

in police investigation.

SCRO report

In June 2000, James Mackay was appointed by the

Crown Office Crown Office may refer to: * Crown Office in Chancery, a department under the Ministry of Justice in the United Kingdom * Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service () is the independent public ...

to investigate an accusation made in 1997 by four fingerprint experts from the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) against PC Shirley McKie leading to her arrest in 1998 on a charge of

perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

. At McKie's trial in 1999, the SCRO fingerprint evidence was rejected and she was acquitted. Mackay's interim report on the matter was submitted to the Crown Office on 3 August 2000 and on its strength the four SCRO fingerprint experts were suspended and Scottish ministers were informed. In October 2000, Mackay submitted his final report, which concluded that SCRO had made a mistake yet had not owned up to it. However, the Crown Office decided to take no action against the four fingerprint personnel, who had been reinstated in the SCRO.

SCCRC

James Mackay was one of eight board members of the

Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, established by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (as amended by the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act ...

(SCCRC), which conducted a four-year review of the conviction of

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi ( , ; 1 April 1952 – 20 May 2012) was a Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103. He was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Trip ...

in the

Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, more than 11 years after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week bench trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set up under ...

. The Commission completed its review on 28 June 2007 by referring Megrahi's to the

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 C ...

for his second appeal against conviction for the

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 th ...

References

External links

Report by Mackay
into the McKie case {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay, James Scottish police officers Tayside Police officers British police chief officers Living people Scottish recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Year of birth missing (living people)