Lord Advocate backs Lord President’s proposals for Scandinavian-style child witness system

In February last year, Mark MacLennan was sentenced to eight years in prison after he was found guilty of raping a three-year-old boy and sexually abusing a girl.

He subsequently launched an appeal, thrown out last week, that the legal process had been “inherently unfair” as a result of the “unjustified delay” in cross examining the case’s witnesses.

The Lord President, Lord Carloway, (pictured right) has since suggested Scotland adopt a Scandanavian model that could bring an end to children being questioned in court.

Under the plans, people accused of crimes could challenge the accusations earlier, including at the investigation stage.

The Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland QC (pictured below) has supported the suggestion and said he would bring it up with Justice Secretary Michael Matheson.

Mr MacLennan was imprisoned at the High Court in Edinburgh for crimes that were “of a particularly vile nature”.

In his appeal he said the children’s memories were unreliable because more than a year had elapsed between the complaints against him being made and his lawyers being able to question them.

But Lord Carloway rejected the appeal, stating Mr MacLennan was given “full opportunity to cross-examine” the children.

He added, however, that there was an “obvious concern about the delay which took place” and proposed two changes for the future.

The first change, which would use existing mechanisms, would allow young children to be taken on commission any time following the accused’s first court appearance on petition, as opposed to having to wait for the full charges to be drawn up in an indictment. The Lord President said this could offer a short-term solution.

But in the long term he would like to see a “move away from the traditional approach and adopt one more akin to the Scandinavian model”.

Such a system would enable defence agents to be involved much earlier.

Lord Carloway said: “This may be seen as a more radical step, but it may be the most appropriate in the modern era.

“Such a move would herald an end to seeing young children being questioned in a court or commission setting with the legal formalities of examination in chief and cross.”

A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “We cannot comment on individual cases.

“We fully appreciate the vulnerability of child witnesses and are always open to discussion on how services can be improved.

“There are a number of supportive measures available for children when giving evidence in court including the use of screens, support measures, and giving evidence via live TV link.

“We recently made these services more broadly available to all witnesses aged under 18.”