The father of a man who died from a stab wound has told MSPs of the “everlasting pain” his family suffer.
Alan McLean was giving evidence on a petition he has lodged at the Scottish Parliament asking the Government to consider giving judges the ability to refer “irrational, unsupported or unbelievable” verdicts of acquittal to the appeal court for review.
He would like to see the proposal turned into new legislation to be known as Barry’s Law, named after his son who died in 2011 in Burntisland at the age of 27.
Sean Kitchener denied murdering him and was found not guilty by a jury after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2012.
Mr McLean told Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee: “We lost our precious son on May 28, 2011, due to knife crime, which is every parent’s worst nightmare as no parent should outlive their child, especially to knife crime.
“The devastation, everlasting pain and emptiness will remain with us for the rest of our lives.
“This change to our normal family life has been forced upon us due to someone else’s intent, actions and wrong choice. This can happen any time, anywhere and to anyone.”
Mr McLean asked MSPs to back his call for trial judges to have the power to refer “perverse acquittal” jury verdicts to the appeal court.
He also criticised the current system for selecting jurors as a “lottery”, which made it possible for “incompetent” people to be chosen, and said a suitability test should be employed.
He was challenged by committee members who raised concerns that the petition, which has attracted 1,311 signatures, would undermine the Scottish justice system.
Mr McLean responded that the proposal was “highly restricted” and should only apply to the most serious of cases, such as where a life had been taken.
He said: “There will be criticism, there will be a small percentage who oppose it, but I think in the long run … we need to make sure that we do have a foolproof system in place and where perverse acquittals have come out and are evident, I think that we need to make sure … that nobody is going to slip through.
“That safety net needs to be in place to give our judges that control measure and I think that would also echo the message into the public to say, ‘these relevant changes are in place, you will not beat the justice system’.”
Mr McLean said he supported the recent call made by former High Court judge Lord Bonomy for further research into jury reasoning and decision-making.
MSPs agreed to write to the Scottish Government to ask what further action would be taken on jury research.
The committee will also seek views from organisations including the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Faculty of Advocates, the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Human Rights Commission on the petition’s proposal.