Tayside Police have been blamed for the collapse of the trial of three women accused of running a city centre brothel, it has emerged.
Sheriff Richard Davidson found fault with both the force and the Crown Office after the trial of Spaniard Dina Martinez (37) and Colombians Adriana Meneses (40) and Mary Hincapie (31) was abandoned last month when prosecutors failed to disclose crucial evidence to the defence.
However, the Crown Office has now laid the blame with Tayside Police, saying the force only supplied prosecutors with the evidence on the morning of the trial.
Both bodies have now vowed to learn valuable lessons from the incident.
The three women had faced an allegation that between March 23 and April 3 this year they had been running a brothel at a flat in Commercial Street, Dundee. All of the women had previously denied the charge.
Minutes before the trial was due to begin, depute fiscal Ross Cargill told the court that crucial video evidence that should have been disclosed to the defence weeks before had only been delivered to the court 10 minutes before the case was to be heard.
A computer report was also instructed by a member of the Procurator Fiscal Service but it only arrived days before the trial.
Mr Cargill asked for the case to be put off to allow the taped interviews with the suspects to be considered by both the prosecution and defence but Sheriff Davidson threw the case out.
He said it was ”frankly outrageous” that Meneses and Hincapie had travelled to Dundee Sheriff Court from London and Martinez from Spain for ”no particularly good reason.”
All charges against the women were dropped and Sheriff Davidson branded the preparation for the case by both the police and the procurator fiscal service a failure.
On Monday, the Crown Office laid the blame squarely with Tayside Police.
A spokesman for the Crown Office said: ”Some evidence which should have been disclosed to the defence in advance of the case calling had not been disclosed.
”The evidence had been requested by the procurator fiscal from Tayside Police but had not been submitted to the procurator fiscal’s office until the morning of the trial.
”The procurator fiscal depute asked for the case to be adjourned but the sheriff ruled that the case should be deserted. The circumstances have been discussed with Tayside Police and lessons learned for the future.”
Tayside Police said the force would learn from the case.
A spokesman for the force said: ”We acknowledge both the sheriff’s decision and his comments and will ensure that, while working closely with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, any lessons are learned.”