Lord Advocate invokes double jeopardy law over 1992 murder

The Lord advocate Frank Mulholland QC has asked the High Court to allow Francis Auld to be re-tried for the May 1992 murder of 19-year old drama student Amanda Duffy.

The Crown is applying to take Mr Auld to trial again under the Double Jeopardy Act 2011, which allows suspects to be prosecuted twice for the same crime, after his original trial ended in a “not proven” verdict in November 1992.

The double jeopardy law provisions mean Mr Mulholland has to convince the court that he has new and compelling evidence which was not available during the first trial.

Police Scotland’s cold case unit re-examined the case on instructions from the Crown, and Ms Duffy’s parents have reportedly met with senior Crown Office officials over the past few weeks.

The Motherwell College student’s body was found on waste ground in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire on 30 May 1992.

There have been no convictions related to the death.

Strathclyde Police re-opened their investigation in 2012 because they believed that “certain people have information in relation to Amanda’s murder that they are withholding, perhaps from a sense of misguided loyalty”.

Serial killer Angus Sinclair became the first person to be retried and convicted under the double jeopardy rules last November.

Mr Mulholland himself secured the conviction in that case after Mr Sinclair had previously been acquitted with “no case to answer” in the original 2007 trial.

England and Wales ended double jeopardy in exceptional circumstances in 2003, and the law was changed in Northern Ireland in 2005.

The principle was changed in Scots law in 2011, with then-justice secretary Kenny MacAskill saying the “law needed to be modernised to ensure that it is fit for the 21st century”.

The new rules mean someone can be re-tried if their acquittal was tainted by an attempt to pervert the course of justice; if they admitted guilt after their acquittal; or if new evidence emerged that was not available to the original trial.