POLICE Scotland today face new claims that they launched a hunt for reporters’ sources after the Sunday Mail exposed serious failures in a major murder inquiry.
Detectives from the force’s internal affairs unit were ordered to investigate after we revealed a forgotten suspect for the murder of prostitute Emma Caldwell 10 years ago.
Instead of urgently reopening the probe into her death after we revealed serious concerns about the original investigation, the force’s Counter Corruption Unit started an inquiry.
Yesterday, the force declined to say what the Stirling-based unit were asked to investigate – but their targets can include serving officers accused of wrong-doing, including passing information to journalists without authority.
In April, we revealed how police had failed to pursue a significant suspect in the Emma Caldwell inquiry as they wrongly focused the £4million investigation on Turkish men.
Police Scotland did not contact the victim’s family immediately to apologise or explain.
And they did not reopen the investigation for another seven weeks – and only then after being ordered to by the Lord Advocate.
The suggestion that internal affairs officers were instead tasked with finding our sources will increase political pressure on embattled Chief Constable Sir Stephen House.
Last week, senior politicians demanded to know if his force broke the law to seize phone data in a bid to identify journalists’ sources without the approval of a judge.
Police Scotland have refused to confirm or deny they are one of two forces accused of a “serious breach” by watchdogs.
They also declined to comment on speculation that the inquiry was linked to our reports about the Emma Caldwell case.
On the 10th anniversary of Emma’s death in April, we ran a series of stories revealing that Lanarkshire man Iain Packer had been interviewed six times by murder squad detectives.
Packer was a former client of Emma, who had become a prostitute after developing a drug addiction.
He was never arrested despite directing officers to the remote forest track 30 miles from Glasgow where the 27-year-old was found dead. He told them he had taken women there many times.
Gerry Gallacher, a retired detective turned author who exposed the serious concerns around the original inquiry, was visited by CCU detectives on May 7, four weeks after our stories were published.
A sergeant from the unit left a card for Gallacher, who was out when they came to his home.
Yesterday, Gallacher said: “I retired from the force four-and-a-half years ago.
“The only reason for an officer from the CCU wanting to speak to me would relate to the Emma Caldwell investigation and the Sunday Mail stories.
“It is hard to believe, given the grave concerns exposed by those stories about the original inquiry, that Police Scotland’s priority was to investigate their own officers – but for me, it is difficult to avoid that conclusion.
“It is right that the most senior officers at Police Scotland read the Sunday Mail stories. It should have spurred them on to renew their efforts to find Emma Caldwell’s killer. It would be concerning if instead, it only spurred them on to find the newspaper’s sources.”
Gallacher is to formally request clarification on whether data from his phone was seized by officers during the CCU investigation.
Police Scotland refused to discuss the focus of the CCU’s inquiries yesterday, but they confirmed that the original inquiry into Emma’s murder was being looked at.
They said: “The priority of Police Scotland is to resolve the murder of Emma Caldwell and we remain committed to tracing the person or individuals responsible.
“Matters relating to the previous investigation are being considered by Police Scotland and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Recent legal changes mean a judge now must give approval before officers gain access to journalists’ phone records, texts and emails or those of suspected sources. Watchdogs at the Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office (IOCCO) had raised concerns that forces were tracking journalists’ sources without good reason.
But last week, the Sunday Herald named Police Scotland as one of two forces who used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to find journalists’ sources without judicial approval after the law changed in March.
Emma, from Erskine, Renfrewshire, disappeared on April 4, 2005. Her body was later found in woods near Roberton, Lanarkshire.
During his sixth interview, Packer, a compulsive user of prostitutes, directed officers to the spot and admitted, despite previously denying knowing Emma, that he had taken her there several times. Emma’s mother Margaret visited the spot with her husband William before he died in 2011 to lay flowers where her daughter was found.
In April, she told the Mail: “It has been so hard over the years and part of me just wants to let it go but she was my little girl – is still my little girl – and we need to know the truth.
“I hope they will properly look at the evidence again.”
Four Turkish men were arrested in 2007 after one of the biggest murder investigations mounted in Scotland. The £4million probe involved covert surveillance but the case collapsed.
House and his force are under scrutiny after controversies over their policies on stop and search and armed officers.
Official investigations are also under way into the death of Sheku Bayoh while being detained by officers in Fife and the deaths of a couple who lay in a crashed car for three days after the accident had been reported to police.
Yesterday, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson refused to reveal whether the Scots force had seized phone data to find journalists’ sources without authority, saying an IOCCO report had to be published before he could comment.
Matheson explained: “They believe it could prejudice their ongoing investigation and threaten the privacy of individuals involved.
“They also believe any future prosecutions and legal proceedings could potentially be compromised.”
But Scottish Labour Justice spokesman Hugh Henry said: “The SNP should confirm if Police Scotland are one of the forces under investigation to end the speculation.
“Such a move would not prejudice any investigation and would give the Scottish people the answer they deserve.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie added: “Michael Matheson must now be transparent over whether Police Scotland was involved.
“It’s the same level of transparency he rightly demanded over the rules being changed for GCHQ spying on MSPs.”
Labour and the Lib Dems have called for Holyrood’s justice sub-committee on policing to hold an inquiry.
Eamon O’Connor, a freelance journalist who followed up our reports into Emma Caldwell’s murder in a report for BBC radio, claimed last week that his phone had been targeted by Police Scotland.
The IOCCO report, however, makes clear that the investigation said to involve Police Scotland was into press reports and that no journalists were directly targeted.
The paragraph in the report alleged to relate to Police Scotland explains how the force failed to get judicial approval for their data seizure before describing the inquiry in general terms.
It says: “A police force acquired communications data relating to a suspected journalistic source working within the police force and a former employee of the force suspected to be acting as an intermediary.
“No data was acquired relating to the journalists who subsequently published an article which allegedly relied on leaked information from the police employee.
“Criminal offences under the Data Protection Act and Computer Misuse Act relating
to the passing of information acquired and retained by the police in a crime investigation were under investigation.”
Yesterday, a Police Scotland source said they had no interest in O’Connor at any time.
Scottish Labour Justice spokesman Hugh Henry: We need a free press.. and we need to know
A HEALTHY democracy needs a free and vigorous campaigning press capable of exposing wrong-doing and injustice.
Those in positions of power may not like the stories our press choose to investigate but can have no legitimate complaint if the reporting is fair and in the public interest.
That is why the suggestion that Police Scotland spied on journalists and investigated their sources is so profoundly worrying.
When papers like the Sunday Mail reveal failings in murder investigations like the Emma Caldwell inquiry, they should be thanked for their efforts.
We don’t know if the police have unlawfully tried to find out who Scotland’s journalists have been talking to and we don’t know – if they were one of the two forces involved – what story they were
investigating.
But we should know, and we need to be told.
It appears Police Scotland only reopened their murder inquiry under instruction from the Lord Advocate weeks after the Mail’s story. That’s not good enough.
Surely Police Scotland were not more concerned about their pride and internal considerations than with finding Emma Caldwell’s murderer?
Surely their reaction to a first-class piece of investigative journalism was not an unauthorised attempt to find out how journalists obtained their information?
If it was, then those ordering those inquiries were doing a disservice to dedicated front line officers doing their best in difficult circumstances.
Police Scotland and the Scottish Government need to come clean and tell us if the force are being investigated by the Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office. And, if so, why?
If Police Scotland have broken the rules, a full investigation is needed. This could be just the tip of the iceberg and we may discover our police have spent far too much time and money chasing journalists’ sources for no good reason.
If we cherish our democratic traditions then unauthorised police surveillance and spying on journalists cannot stand.
When we find out what has happened here, the people of Scotland need two things. We must have confidence that Police Scotland have been playing by the rules and we must know that our ministers will tell us if they have not.
