Exasperated sheriff slams Police Scotland over tardiness

Sheriff Timothy Nivensmith at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court said the practice was “underselling the criminal justice system to victims of crime” after he heard in a case that neither the prosecution nor defence had been given two-year old footage that could identify thieves.

Procurator fiscal depute Michael Robertson said he believed the police had seized the footage at the outset of the case and that the Crown had been trying to obtain it.

Sheriff Niven-smith said: “So that presumably means officers were provided with CCTV by the operator of the [camera] system prior to September 25 last year. I’m totally at a loss. That means police officers go to someone’s door… and they say they have CCTV and load it onto a pen drive and sign a piece of paper and so, where is it? It’s not rocket science. I simply don’t understand how these things can not be provided to the procurator fiscal and then be provided to the defence.”

He added: “The date of these offences is April 2020. As I have repeatedly said… the accused are likely – if they see themselves on footage trying handles and car doors – to plead guilty.

“We have all these public expenses and wasted court resources and are churning cases over and over simply because we cannot be given CCTV to show to clients to say ‘that is me’ or ‘that is not me.’

“I simply don’t understand why this case is trundling slowly along. We are underselling the criminal justice system to victims of crime by the tardiness of police producing CCTV footage.”

The sheriff set a further intermediate diet for May 9.