The Missing Crown Affair

In the newspapers this morning, there is much understandable outrage and calumny that, even if sentenced to the maximum term for his crimes, Bill Walker cannot be deprived of his seat in Holyrood, despite the MSP's comprehensive condemnation in Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday.

The Scotsman calls for his resignation. The Herald argue that "that this convicted violent offender has not resigned his seat and cannot be forced to do so under existing parliamentary rules is an affront to women and a disgrace to Holyrood".

That Walker cannot be forced from office unless sentenced to more than a year in prison has been treated primarily as an unhappy quirk of electoral law by the press. Today, the Herald floats the (to my mind, legally implausible) idea that Holyrood may have the power to introduce its own recall law. I doubt it can. In the alternative, they suggest that Westminster should be encouraged to enact reforms, including perhaps the abortive, long-delayed proposals to introduce a right to recall parliamentarians. 

Largely escaping scrutiny on today's front pages and leaders dealing with this story are the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service's decisions in this case.  That Walker won't be disqualified from office, and will effectively decide for himself whether he stays on, isn't just down to how the Representation of the People Act 1981 is drafted.

It is also down to a decision, taken by Scottish prosecutors, to try Walker in a summary court, with maximum sentencing powers of twelve months.  As I argued yesterday, for an organisation which makes much of its commitment to dealing robustly with domestic violence, to treat a man in this fashion who has committed over twenty assaults, against four people, across decades, seems bewildering. Few folk I mentioned this to yesterday could credit it.

Curious to know more, I send the Crown Office a wee inquiry this morning.  Why and how was the decision made to prosecute Walker before Sheriff Mackie alone, given the scope of his offending and the Crown Office's repeated public commitments to take domestic violence seriously? Here was what a spokesman had to say:

To unpack that a bit, the statement confirms that the local Procurator Fiscal initially intended to see Walker tried by a jury, on indictment. I'm told that the charges numbered around thirty at this stage rather than the twenty-four which proceeded before the sheriff in Edinburgh. If the Procurator Fiscal had proceeded with this plan, today, Walker might well have been facing the serious possibility of being relieved of parliamentary office, and a sentence of anything up to five years in jail. So what happened, and why?

From the statement, consideration of Walker's case clearly climbed up the Crown's hierarchy, ending up on the desk of the prosecution service's senior figures, Crown Counsel, who usually spend their time prosecuting cases in the High Court, and generally concern themselves only with the most serious of criminal cases.  On one level, that the case was considered at this level in the organisation isn't surprising.  Walker is a public figure, a sitting MSP, and his prosecution was destined to be attended by controversy.

But why did Crown Counsel decide Walker's case was fit for summary decision, given the scope of the charged against him? The statement offers only the usual boilerplate. Further questions might be asked. Was sufficient weight given to the public interest in the effective prosecution of domestic abuse? For example, the Crown now, as a matter of policy, follows a presumption that knife-carriers who are caught a second time, carrying an illegal weapon, will be prosecuted on indictment in the sheriff court.

Why was the Walker case regard as any less of a priority? The historical nature of "facts and circumstances of" the offences? Surely not. So why? Did the Crown perhaps miscalculate, assuming that Walker would make a guilty plea, but finding him stubborn, and consequently itself stuck in a procedure which on some views, was inadequate to the gravity of his offending? Did the Lord Advocate Frank Mullholland sign-off on, or was he consulted in the decision-making process to demote this prosecution to summary level?

More answers, if and when I receive any.

UPDATE

Late yesterday afternoon, while I was out carousing, I received this supplementary statement from the Crown Office. Asked about what role, if any, Law officers played in the Walker decision, the spokesman responded:

"I can confirm for your background that the protocol with cases involving members of Parliament is that the Law Officers have no role in the decision-making process, which is dealt with by Crown Counsel."