Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland on scrapping of corroboration Scottish Parliament Justice Committee

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• published: 02 Dec 2013
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Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland on scrapping of corroboration Scottish Parliament Justice Committee 20 November 2013 Scotland's Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland speaks to the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee, giving evidence on why he believes the safeguard of corroboration should be scrapped. The term Corroboration from Scots Law is where evidence in a court of law is needed from two separate sources for a conviction. The Lord Advocate and the Crown Office want corroboration scrapped because Scottish Prosecutors cannot secure enough convictions in rape cases because of poor presentation of evidence, prosecutors who do not wish to pursue rape cases, poor interviews with victims and poor quality investigations. Corroboration is a long held safeguard in Scots law which helps protect people from miscarriage of justice in any case of a criminal prosecution against any criminal offence in Scottish law. LORD HOPE, who previously served as Lord Justice General of Scotland and Lord President of the Court of Session, and until June was deputy president of the UK Supreme Court has criticised plans by the Scottish Government to remove the long held safeguard of corroboration in criminal trials, where evidence is needed from two separate sources for a conviction. In an interview for Holyrood Magazine, Lord Hope described the proposal contained in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill, to abolish corroboration, as "potentially dangerous". Read more at Scottish Law Reporter here http://scottishlaw.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-now-for-crown-office-plan-to-skew.html Scotland's Lord President Lord Gill has also spoken out against the removal of corroboration More on the Corroboration issue here http://scottishlaw.blogspot.com/search/label/Corroboration