Crown Office fails to apologise to young woman who was wrongly arrested due to staff incompetence

Miah Duffy, 22, was arrested because she failed to appear as a witness at a trial in June. She had, however, emailed the Crown Office beforehand to inform them of a pre-booked holiday to Ibiza, The Press and Journal reports.

Ms Duffy received a response thanking her but the message was never sent to court staff and an arrest warrant was granted. She was falsely accused of contempt of court.

She said: “To be falsely arrested and spend the night in custody is degrading and embarrassing.”

Sheriff Janys Scott QC expressed outrage and ordered court staff to remove the woman’s handcuffs immediately. She said: “It appears that the Crown have not covered themselves in glory. Take off those handcuffs, please. I’m sorry you had to wear those.”

Last Friday, Ms Duffy awoke at 12.30am to find police officers at her door.

“When I saw police I honestly thought someone had died,” she said. “But then they said: ‘Do you know why we’re here? We’re here to arrest you’.

“I showed the police evidence of me having communications with the procurator fiscal and them confirming that they’d received my email, so they already knew I wasn’t going to be there.

“The officers contacted the duty sergeant back at the station and told them this, but they were told I still had to be arrested.

“I was put into the back of a police van but thankfully they said I didn’t need to wear handcuffs.”

After spending the night in a cell, Ms Duffy was taken to Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

While she received an apology from the sheriff, no one from the Crown Office has yet apologised to her. When asked by the newspaper for a comment, a spokeswoman would only say: “We note the comments of the sheriff.”