Bizarre scenes at a Dundee trial when 10 witnesses were held in the cells could be repeated if a Fife court is closed, according to one of the area’s leading criminal lawyers.
As we reported, three of the witnesses, including the mother of a six-month old baby and a disabled woman, were sent downstairs on Tuesday by Sheriff Tom Hughes for turning up to court late.
Fife solicitor Douglas Williams warned this could be the fate of many more if Cupar Sheriff Court is axed.
There has been speculation that the court will be scrapped and a document published ahead of a series of meetings this week and next over the future of the nation’s court system has compounded fears that it will go.
The paper, published for discussion, singles out Cupar, Forfar and Stonehaven courts for possible closure as they are within 20 miles of other courts.
Mr Williams, of Williams Gray Williams, regularly represents clients at Cupar Sheriff Court and branded the suggestion it should go as ”ill-conceived”.
He said: ”What happened in Dundee is exactly what is going to happen in other courts if they are closed down. You will have people travelling all over the country where there is no public transport and being locked up by angry sheriffs because they are not there on time.”
Mr Williams added: ”The worst example I have had is I had to arrange for a client to be put up in the Seamen’s Mission in Glasgow overnight because he was being tried in Glasgow and he lived far out in the East Neuk. There was no way he could get there for 10am.”
In the court system reform he fears no thought will be given to the difficulties faced by those who live far from bus or train routes.
Mr Williams also described as a ”serious problem” the prospect of accused people being tried by jurors of vastly different backgrounds, for example a lecturer at St Andrews University being judged by a jury in Dunfermline made up of residents of ex-mining communities in West Fife.
He said: ”The main charter of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish justice system is that justice is delivered locally so people get tried by their peers.
”I have worked in offices in Dunfermline, Cardenden and Cowdenbeath and I can tell you from my own experience that there is a world of difference between St Andrews and East Fife, Kirkcaldy and Mid Fife and Dunfermline and West Fife. The psyche is completely different.”
Furthermore, he claimed there is little financial benefit to be had from closing Cupar Sheriff Court and questioned where its cases could be accommodated.
He said: ”The estate in Cupar is not particularly large. It’s a court within another public building, the offices are not extensive. In terms of square footage, there isn’t a huge saving to be made.
”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There’s no room at the inn in Dundee and Kirkcaldy is falling down.”
Dunfermline, he pointed out, was quite a journey from East Fife even by car.
He said: ”Closure of Cupar Sheriff Court would have a huge impact. There would be lawyers in this area having to charge their clients more because they are sitting around doing nothing in a court which is too busy.
“The easy answer is to bring more business to Cupar, not less.”
Discussions with stakeholders over the future of Scotland’s courts have been taking place in Inverness, Aberdeen and Glasgow this week and will continue in Perth on Monday.