Lord Hodge

Lord Hodge, 70, led a panel of three judges who dismissed an appeal made by the businessman David Grier, who had been appointed as an administrator of the club and who had launched a £9 million damages claims against Police Scotland and the lord advocate over his malicious prosecution.

Mr Grier, 61, wants compensation for the prosecution that followed a botched fraud inquiry into activity at the Ibrox club. His appeal failed at the Court of Session and the Supreme Court refused permission to appeal.

Lord Hodge said he was not required to recuse himself from the panel. A spokeswoman for the court had previously said that he had “no knowledge that was relevant in the prosecution”.

It has now been reported that the was on a list of potential witnesses for the Crown in the case against Mr Grier and that he gave a seven-page interview to detectives.

Mr Grier said he will take his case to the European Court of Human Rights if a new panel is not convened at the Supreme Court to determine whether he may appeal or not.

“Lord Hodge was named as a witness against me on the indictment; he provided two statements to the police in which he suggested that I had been dishonest to him in a report; he provided a statement pointing out how his being a witness was unique in legal history; he provided undisclosed information to other Scottish judges about the allegations that I had been dishonest; he demanded the BBC hand over evidence to him about the matters, yet he now says that he had no relevant background information about the case which meant he should have stepped aside in deciding whether I had grounds to appeal,” Mr Grier said.

“My hope for a proper tribunal to hear this case at last, in London, has been dashed by a judge who appears not to have read the international standards which require that someone who has been a witness should not judge the case.”

A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court said of Lord Hodge: “He was and is unaware of what assessment the police made of his evidence and was never asked to be involved in the prosecution of Mr Grier. He remains of the view that his knowledge gave rise to no conflict of interest.

“Lord Hodge disclosed to the other members of the permission to appeal panel (Lord Kitchin and Lady Rose) that he had been involved in the police investigation and that he had not been called as a witness. The panel agreed that there was no conflict of interest.”