A Dundee gran whose seven-year-old son was killed after being run over by a lorry has accused Police Scotland of a “cover-up” over what her family calls a “corrupt, botched investigation” into the tragedy.
Danny Leech died on September 8, 1989, after being struck as he crossed the busy Arbroath Road near its junction with Albert Street.
And more than three decades on, Linda Leech and her other son John are embroiled in an extraordinary dispute with police chiefs.
It comes after they uncovered what they claim is a “fake,” unsigned statement attributed to Linda’s niece Karen Martin who witnessed the tragedy.
They have reported the actions of the then Tayside Police officers – who they say failed to properly investigate the accident at the time before trying to cover it up – to Scotland’s Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC).
The family has also branded an investigation by current officers from Police Scotland’s Police Standards Department – which failed to find any evidence of criminality by the driver or the lorry firm or failures by investigating officers at the time – a “whitewash.”
‘I’ve not had a life since’
Linda said: “I was cooking at home that day, Danny and Karen were coming to me and we were meant to be going to the carnival.
“I got a telephone call that Danny had been in an accident.
“I went straight to the hospital and the ambulance wasn’t there yet. They put me inside a room with Danny’s gran – my mother – and then I was told Danny didn’t make it.
“I was in shock, and I’ve not had a life since. I’ve been on medication ever since and any time I have a laugh about anything I feel guilty and feel like I shouldn’t be doing that.”
The statement at the heart of the dispute stated Danny suddenly ran off the pavement and in to the side of the lorry.
It mysteriously appeared in police files four years after Danny’s death and led to a civil court case against the driver and the lorry company being dropped in 1993.
Karen – then 13 and with Danny at the time – has always maintained he was almost on the pavement on the south side of the road when he was hit and pulled under the offside wheels of the lorry’s trailer, which was on the wrong side of the road whilst manoeuvring round the tight junction.
Karen, now in her 40s, denies ever speaking to a police officer on the day and even went to Bell Street HQ to write and sign a declaration stating she has never given a statement saying Danny ran in to the nearside of the lorry.
She ran to her gran’s house nearby and they both returned to the scene but were not allowed to go in to the ambulance.
Cousin’s heartbreak
Recalling the events after the horror incident in the signed statement, she says: “We were put in a police car with the lorry driver’s two kids and my gran went mad, although I didn’t know why.
“We were both a bit of a mess.
“I don’t remember if the kids were still in the car when the police drove me to the hospital.
“At no point during the drive or before the drive did I speak to police or give a statement.
“I was put in a room with a nurse and waited to be collected by my mum. I didn’t speak to police at the hospital.”
Linda says despite a lengthy battle to prove what exactly happened that day, police have failed to properly investigate the incident at the second time of asking.
The family say the force is insisting that due to the passage of time, any records of the fatal incident have been destroyed in accordance with their policy.
Mum’s plea for answers
Linda is now hoping that telling her story of the day her cherished son was killed will jog memories of anybody who witnessed the horror incident and provide the answers she has been denied for 33 years.
She said: “I felt like the police had done nothing, he was only a wee laddie and things have been swept under the carpet.
“The QC told me I had a 100% case but then they turned up at the door and said there was new evidence and it would cost thousands of pounds to continue.
“He didn’t show me what the new evidence was and who had thousands of pounds?
“There were a lot of things I didn’t want to know but I was in shock and I had to think of John as well.
“There’s something wrong here.”
John, 45, says he first realised there were still unanswered questions surrounding the incident through discussions with his terminally-ill dad, also John, just four years ago.
“Shortly before his death a few years ago, my dad and I were talking about regrets and he told me that he’d always wished he could have discovered the truth about Danny’s death.
“I’d been shielded from most of it as a kid and it wasn’t until then that I realised how unhappy they were with the initial police investigation, so I decided to do something about it.
“I started asking for Freedom of Information to answer some of my questions.
“That’s when I discovered the faked statement. Karen was never interviewed by police after Danny’s death. We were devastated and determined to get answers.”
He then raised several issues with Police Scotland. They included:
- Why, despite the undoubted shock the driver Colin Nicoll must have been suffering from, the investigating officer had allowed him to drive his lorry away from the scene
- Why the road was reopened only half an hour after the accident.
- Why Mr Nicoll – working for Lairds Trucking of Forfar – wasn’t charged with any offence, including causing death by dangerous or careless driving, or carrying two children and a dog in the cab of the lorry, despite their being only two seats.
John, 12 at the time of the accident, said: “So many things just don’t add up. It is a whitewash from start to finish and we won’t rest until we get to the bottom of it.
“Danny was only seven years old and he didn’t deserve this.”
He also claims there apparently was no accident report sent to the procurator fiscal at the time despite it being a fatal accident.
John says shortly before his passing, his dad told him they were unhappy with the initial investigation and had initiated a civil action a couple of years after the accident in the hope the driver and the company would be held responsible for Danny’s death.
But on the eve of the court case, their own Edinburgh-based legal team of Advocate Neil Boyd – now deceased – and instructing solicitor Neil MacDonald turned up at Mrs Leech’s house and told her “new evidence” had been lodged by Lairds Trucking’s solicitors and there was no longer any hope of winning the case.
However, John says the family was not told the “new evidence” was the statement Karen denies ever making.
They were told it would cost thousands to continue, money the family could not afford, and as a result the case was dropped the next day.
After three years trying to get answers from police, he then raised a complaint with the force’s Professional Standards Department (PSD).
The department’s Inspector Anne Steel said a full investigation was held by Sergeant Craig Blacklaw of Professional Standards North but “due to Data Retention policies” he could find no evidence of any criminality by the lorry driver or by the company.
She also said Sergeant Blacklaw had found no evidence that police had failed to properly investigate the tragedy.
Lairds Trucking approached
Mr Leech has labelled the findings “a whitewash” and has taken legal advice and contacted Dundee West MP Chris Law in an effort to see justice for his brother and closure for his mother.
He has also now referred the case to the Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC) and a new Facebook page has been launched in an effort to raise awareness of the case and jog the memories of any potential witnesses.
Several attempts to contact Mr Nicoll through his mobile phone and social media have been unsuccessful.
Jim Laird, head of Lairds Trucking at the time of the accident, said he was “not involved in that” and added: “No comment.”
His son Jamie, who is now a director of Laird, said: “I’m sorry but this is not something I would be able to comment on.”
Solicitor Neil MacDonald has also failed to respond to a request for a statement.
A spokesperson for PIRC said they had received an application for a Complaint Handling Review in the case and that “the review is currently ongoing and the applicant is being updated on our progress.”
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