A PUBLIC inquiry into the malicious prosecution of two administrators of Rangers FC must be led by someone from outside Scotland, the Tories have urged. 

Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservatives' finance spokesman, argued for fellow MSPs to back calls for an independent public inquiry into the "unprecedented" scandal which saw David Whitehouse and Paul Clark unfairly targeted by prosecutors. 

The pair were the administrators of Rangers after financial woes saw the club collapse nearly a decade ago.

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The Lord Advocate, James Wolffe, admitted the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) had pursued a malicious prosecution against the two men but appeared to walk back that statement in Parliament today.

Mr Fraser said: "This was not simple human error or an obscure legal mistake. Our prosecution service has admitted that, acting with malice, they sought to throw innocent men behind bars and destroy their reputations.

“Nothing could be more deplorable than the state seeking to imprison citizens they know to be innocent.

“That is why the only acceptable outcome is for the SNP to agree to establish a judge-led inquiry with full power to get to the bottom of what happened.

“Given the central role of Lord Mulholland as the previous Lord Advocate, the public would also expect a judge from outwith Scotland, most likely from one of the other home nations, to be appointed."

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In an apology to Parliament today, the Lord Advocate said: "They should not have been prosecuted and as the current Lord Advocate and head of the system of criminal prosecutions, I apologised unreservedly that they had been. I reiterate that unreserved apology publicly to Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse today."

But the Lord Advocate said that despite the affair being a malicious prosecution, “no individual had malice in the popular sense of a spiteful motive”.

Mr Whitehouse issued a statement after the Lord Advocate's appearance in Holyrood earlier today. 

He said: "Never before has the government’s top law officer had to admit to ‘indefensible’ actions and ‘serious failure’. I welcome his apology to me and my colleague Paul Clark but as many MSPs pointed out today in their chorus of condemnation, that when something goes seriously wrong who is at fault?

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“The Lord Advocate said no-one acted out of spite but the fact remains that it was people within Crown Office that took a series of decisions that resulted in us being hauled out of our homes, falsely accused of crimes, incarcerated and prosecuted with malice. Those people should be held accountable.

A spokesman for the COPFS said: "The Lord Advocate told the Scottish Parliament that the Crown will support a process of inquiry once all the related matters have been dealt with.

"The form of the inquiry would fall to be decided upon at the appropriate time."

The Scottish Government would not be drawn on the question of what a public inquiry should look like. A spokeswoman said: "We agree that a judge-led inquiry should be held into the events surrounding these prosecutions. 

“Until other related legal proceedings are concluded, it would be inappropriate to say more about its timing or nature.”