THE long-running saga of the failed prosecution of the men who were appointed as administrators of Rangers when the club went bust in 2012 took another astonishing turn yesterday in the Court of Session.
Leading Scottish lawyer Andrew Smith QC, representing David Grier who is suing the Crown Office and Police Scotland, told the court before judge Lord Tyre that his client was arrested and charged in 2014, with the Crown eventually dropping the charges.
Smith said: “The Crown and the police are not friends in this case. They are enemies and the sooner the Crown realises that the better.”
Grier’s action is being taken in the light of the Crown’s admission that two other administrators, David Whitehouse and Paul Clark, had been the victims of malicious prosecution.
That admission has been acutely embarrassing for Scotland’s justice system, as most of the decisions in the case were taken when Frank Mulholland and James Wolffe were in charge of the Crown Office – former Lord Advocate Mulholland is now a judge while Wolffe is the current Lord Advocate.
Smith said: “We need to see if the former Lord Advocate did have his hand on the tiller or whether the staff in this case were on autopilot.”
Smith is demanding that a database of documents known as the “Charlotte Fakes” be handed over. This database is alleged to contain emails illegally hacked from former Rangers owner Craig Whyte.
The case was continued after Gerry Moynihan QC for the Crown said he needed more time to prepare the case.
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