Lady Scott | |
---|---|
Senator of the College of Justice | |
Assumed office 2012 | |
Nominated by | Alex Salmond As First Minister |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Personal details | |
Born | Margaret Elizabeth Scott 1960 (age 63–64) Nairobi,Kenya |
Profession | Advocate |
Website | Judiciary of Scotland |
Margaret Elizabeth Scott,Lady Scott (born 1960,Nairobi,Kenya) is a Scottish lawyer who was appointed a judge in 2012.
Scott was born in 1960 in Nairobi,Kenya. [1] She graduated from University of Edinburgh with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree and from the University of Strathclyde with a Diploma in Legal Practice (DipLP). [2]
Scott was admitted as a solicitor in 1989, [2] and she was called to the bar in Scotland (the Faculty of Advocates) in 1991. [3] She "took silk" (became a Queen's Counsel) in 2002. [4] She has acted as lead counsel in a number of high-profile appeal cases such as the Lockerbie bombing and the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars,in which she defended Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Thomas "TC" Campbell,respectively. She was also successful in the appeal case of Kim Galbraith,whose murder conviction for shooting her policeman husband was reduced to diminished responsibility.
On 6 November 2008,Scott applied to the Court of Criminal Appeal for Megrahi's release on bail pending the second appeal against his conviction at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in 2001. The three judges reserved their judgment on the application. [5] A week later,Megrahi's bail application was refused. [6] Megrahi was told he would remain in jail for the duration of his second appeal. [7]
From 2003 to 2012,Scott was a part-time sheriff. [2] On 2 November 2012,she was installed as a Senator of the College of Justice, [8] taking the judicial title Lady Scott. [9]
Scott provoked public anger in July 2013 when sentencing a man convicted of several incidences of rape,as she appeared to praise him for having overcome his difficult background and succeeded at running a business. Her comment was viewed as inappropriate,with the Scottish Conservative Chief Whip John Lamont arguing that,"plenty of people have had tough lives ... but don’t rape anyone." [10]
In March 2017,Scott granted a man who confessed to the rape of a 12-year-old child an absolute discharge. Although Scott acknowledged that Scottish law dictates an individual under the age of 13 is considered incapable of giving consent in any circumstance,she stated that the victim was not distressed and that all eyewitnesses believed her to be over 16. [11] Rape Crisis England and Wales critiqued Scott's ruling,saying that,as a 12-year-old has no legal capacity to consent,sexual activity with them is always illegal. Moreover,it is an adult's responsibility to ensure that their partner is capable of giving consent. [12] In a letter published after the trial,the victim claimed that she was unconscious at the time of the attack,further calling into question her ability to consent. [13]
Scott's partner is Frank Richard Crowe,a sheriff. [14] Together they have one son. [2]
Kenneth Wright MacAskill is a Scottish politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian from 2019 to 2024. He previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 2007 to 2014 and was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2016. A former member of the Scottish National Party (SNP),he defected to the Alba Party in 2021 and currently serves as the party's depute leader.
The Scottish court in the Netherlands was a special sitting of the High Court of Justiciary set up under Scots law in a former United States Air Force base,Camp Zeist near Utrecht,in the Netherlands,for the trial of two Libyans charged with 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie,Scotland,on 21 December 1988. A school on the former base was converted into a judicial court for the trial.
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court,the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Court building in the Old Town in Edinburgh,or in dedicated buildings in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The High Court sometimes sits in various smaller towns in Scotland,where it uses the local sheriff court building. As an appeal court,the High Court sits only in Edinburgh. On one occasion the High Court of Justiciary sat outside Scotland,at Zeist in the Netherlands during the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial,as the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. At Zeist the High Court sat both as a trial court,and an appeal court for the initial appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
A sheriff court is the principal local civil and criminal court in Scotland,with exclusive jurisdiction over all civil cases with a monetary value up to £100,000,and with the jurisdiction to hear any criminal case except treason,murder,and rape,which are in the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Justiciary. Though the sheriff courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the High Court over armed robbery,drug trafficking,and sexual offences involving children,the vast majority of these cases are heard by the High Court. Each court serves a sheriff court district within one of the six sheriffdoms of Scotland. Each sheriff court is presided over by a sheriff,who is a legally qualified judge,and part of the judiciary of Scotland.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines,director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli,Libya,and an alleged Libyan intelligence officer. On 31 January 2001,Megrahi was convicted,by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands,of 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie,Scotland,on 21 December 1988 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused,Lamin Khalifah Fhimah,was found not guilty and was acquitted.
The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000,more than 11 years after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week bench trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set up under Scots law and held at a disused United States Air Force base called Camp Zeist near Utrecht.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government,established by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.
Robert Black is Professor Emeritus of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh. He has been an Advocate in Scotland since 1972,was in practice at the Bar and became a QC in 1987.
Herbert Swire,known better as Jim Swire,is an English doctor best known for his involvement in the aftermath of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103,in which his daughter Flora was killed. Swire lobbied toward a solution for the difficulties in bringing suspects in the original bombing to trial,and later advocated the retrial and release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi,the originally convicted suspect in the case.
Tony Gauci was the proprietor of Mary's House,a clothes shop in Sliema,Malta,who was a witness in the prosecution of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in relation to the Lockerbie Bombing.
Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas,a Boeing 747 registered N739PA. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988,while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie,it was destroyed by a bomb,killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie,killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities,it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom.
Rape is a type of sexual assault initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force,under threat or manipulation,by impersonation,or with a person who is incapable of giving valid consent.
Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission stemmed from the dispute between the United Kingdom,the United States,and Libya concerning arrangements for the trial of two Libyans accused of causing the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.
Aamer Anwar is a British political activist and lawyer of Pakistani origin. He was an active participant in the Stop the War Coalition,and campaigned against the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles. He has been a longstanding critic of the Dungavel Detention Centre for failed asylum seekers,and is a trustee of the Time for Inclusive Education charity for LGBT-inclusive education in Scottish schools.
The World's End Murders is the colloquial name given to the murder of two girls,Christine Eadie,17,and Helen Scott,17,in Edinburgh,in October 1977. The case is so named because both victims were last seen alive leaving The World's End pub in Edinburgh's Old Town. The only person to stand trial accused of the murders,Angus Robertson Sinclair,was acquitted in 2007 in controversial circumstances. Following the amendment of the law of double jeopardy,which would have prevented his retrial,Sinclair was retried in October 2014 and convicted of both murders on 14 November 2014. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years,the longest sentence by a Scottish court,meaning he would have been 106 years old when he was eligible for a potential release on parole. He died at HM Prison Glenochil aged 73 on 11 March 2019. Coincidentally,he died on the same day the BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow programme profiled the murders.
In common law jurisdictions,statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent. Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual contact with minors under the age of consent,it is a generic term,and very few jurisdictions use the actual term statutory rape in the language of statutes. In statutory rape,overt force or threat is usually not present. Statutory rape laws presume coercion because a minor or mentally disabled adult is legally incapable of giving consent to the act.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted on 31 January 2001 by a special Scottish Court in the Netherlands for the bomb attack on Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 over Lockerbie. After he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer,he was released from prison on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009,having served 8½years of a life sentence. His release was authorised by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. The decision attracted significant news coverage,engendering widespread celebration in Libya,a largely hostile reaction in the United States and a more equally divided reaction in Britain.
Rape by deception is a situation in which the perpetrator deceives the victim into participating in a sexual act to which they would otherwise not have consented,had they not been deceived. Deception can occur in many forms,such as illusory perceptions,false statements,and false actions.
Nicholas Alahverdian,also known as Nicholas Rossi and Arthur Knight,among other aliases,is an American sex offender who faked his own death in 2020.
Alistair John MacKenzie Duff is a former Scottish advocate and sheriff who later became Director of the Judicial Institute of Scotland before resigning after being arrested and charged with undisclosed offences.
A 12-year-old child does not legally have the capacity to give their consent and sexual activity with them is always therefore a sexual offence. It's any adult's legal and moral responsibility to actively seek and be sure they have received the other person's consent for any and all sexual activity with them. This includes making sure that that person has the freedom and capacity to give their consent. For example, if someone is unsure as to whether the person they're with is too drunk to freely consent, they should not have sex with them.
It was said that I consented but how can someone consent when they can't even talk?