Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another Scotland Then episode. In this episode, I'll
be highlighting newspaper stories from Miss Scotsman on the twenty fourth,
twenty fifth, the twenty eighth, twenty ninth, and thirty first
of August and the third of September nineteen eighty one,
around the time of Alien Printy's murder. I know this
is the second Scotland Then episode in a row, but
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a normal Scottish Murders episode will be released next week.
It will be the disappearance of Pat McCadam in nineteen
sixty seven. Okay, let's go back to August nineteen eighty one,
when I was only three years old, so as the
newspaper stories are from August. In Scotland, there was a
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lot of articles about the Edinburgh Fringe, but the one
I picked to share with you was written by Anthony
Troon because it really transported me back there and it
made me smile. Normally, I would rewrite each article I
come across into my own words, but in this case,
it was just such a well written, strange article that
felt that it could have been part of the fringe itself,
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that I didn't think I could do it, just as
by rewriting it. So on this occasion I'm going to
read out the article headed Fringe Takes to the Streets
by Anthony Truon in The Scotsman on the twenty fourth
of August of Arbatum, and it is as follows. Here
is a short review of the High Street, Edinburgh from
the Hunter Square junction at east to Saint Giles Street
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at the west, including Parliament Squares East and West and
the waxworks and wireworks courtyards. It's not often you're asked
to review a street, so you have to get it right.
The theory was that fifty nine half hour events would
take place there yesterday between one pm and six pm,
and quite possibly this is precisely what happened. Nobody could
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be sure, but what did materialize was a great street scharivari,
in which they remove a boat, listened to the inaudible,
the ineffable, watched the indefinable while eating the indigestible, and
even the pushing and shit was done in a spirit
of cultural thirst. It was a chance to see how
wide is the Fringe's spectrum. This year the Limited Company
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were doing a piece of allegorical grotesquery involving murder and
hanging only yards from where the fourth Children's group's mouths
were working in silent song, totally unable to overcome the
sound of someone from another show playing the Australian at
National Anthem on the saxophone. There were even people who
weren't expected. Seven monks of mixed sex, including the only
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Holy Brethren, where blue drop earrings were coverting about in
heavy habits, giving a taste of what seemed like a
lively and original show. Yet this fairly solid theater company
don't even have a theater and merely put on the
show whenever they find a gap in the street. And yes,
there were people in the high Street yesterday watching empty
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gaps by mistake, while the show they were anticipating happened
somewhere else. There was a children's theater with exotic costumes,
and elsewhere reggae songs about body odor. Nothing, however nice
or nasty, was overlooked in the high Street yesterday afternoon.
There was even a blue Rin's Lady in the window
seat of a cafe, stirring brown Wren's tea and watching
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the goings on with blank incomprehension. At that point she
became part of the fringe too. I really enjoyed this
article and I hope you did too. Okay, now onto
something about more serious In our next story, which was
headed forensic scientist discredited The Home Secretary at the time,
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William Whitelaw, announced there was to be a review of
criminal cases involving discredited forensic scientist doctor Allan Clift, following
revelations that Cliff's flawed evidence led to the wrongful conviction
of John Priesce for murder. John Priesce, a lorry driver,
was sentenced to life in nineteen seventy three for the
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killing of missus Helen will in Aberdeen, based largely on
forensic testimony by doctor Allen Clift that was later proven unreliable.
John Priest was released in nineteen eighty one after serving
eight years, when the appeal court roled that the jury
would not have convicted him had they known key details
omitted from Allen Clift's report. Doctor Allen Clift, who had
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been suspended on full pay since nineteen seventy seven and
was finally given six months notice of compulsory retirement in
September nineteen eighty one, had failed to disclose crucial blood
grouping results in his rewritten report for the Scottish trial.
The original English version had stated that Helen Wills blood
group matched John Price's, a fact later deemed significant. The
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Appeal Court emphasized that forensic scientists must present all relevant facts,
leaving interpretation to the court. The Home Secretary William Whitelaw,
had initially resisted reopening cases, arguing that any injustices would
have surfaced by now. However, further inquiries had prevailed that
files from nineteen sixty seven to nineteen seventy seven, which
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had involved doctor Allen Clift and not guilty Please, could
still be examined. This move followed mounting pressure from MPs
and legal experts, some of whom defended Cliff's integrity, while
others criticized his technical competence and selective reporting. The case
also sparked debate within the forensic community. Doctor David Patterson,
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former President of the Forensic Science Society, urged doctor Cliff
to appeal his dismissal, while Professor William Tillstone of Strathclude
University downplayed the controversy, suggesting differences in interpretation had been exaggerated.
Doctor Allen Clift was reported to be under intense strain
and declined to comment about the impending reviews of criminal
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cases he had been involved with. That's the thing. Forensics
are fantastic, as are forensic officers, and forensics in the
main can't be argued with. However, that only applies if
all forensic information is reported and not only selected parts.
This next story was sad and I feel a different
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way of saying what was said could have changed how
it likely impacted a bereaved and angry mother. According to
The Scotsman, on the third of September nineteen eighty one,
Margaret Allen from Drumchapel in Glasgow was calling for an
inquiry into the sudden death of her ten year old daughter, Deborah,
who died after undergoing routine growth related tests at the
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Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Debora had been admitted for
investigation into a short stature, but lapsed into a coma
and was transferred to the Southern General Hospital, which underwent
emergency brain surgery. Sadly, though she died early the following day,
a community medicine specialist, doctor Duncan Flag advised that insulin
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had been used as part of the testing process. On Deborah,
and he acknowledged that he had received reports from staff
that there had been problems regarding the dosage of insulin
that was being given to Deborah. While doctor Fletcher did
stress that insulin is a standard tool in growth assessments worldwide,
he admitted that Deborah's case of death remained unknown and
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that a full investigation would be conducted, going on to
state that he would not be seeing anything further at
this time as a report had already been submitted to
the Procurator Fiscal. This tragedy sparked wider debate, but what
would have really upset me if I had been Deborah's
mother is what doctor Derrek Buchanan of the British Medical
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Association said in the same newspaper article. He said that
while he expressed great sympathy from Margaret Allen, he wholeheartedly
defended the continuation of such tests, arguing that medical process
depends on calculated risk and that for every tragedy like this,
there must be hundreds of successes. So far, I can
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understand his viewpoint. Nothing wrong in what he said there,
but he didn't stop there. He went on to say,
tragic as it is, it does not mean all tests
throughout the world should stop. You might as well say
one should not cross the road in case one gets
run over, or that one should not fly in an
aeroplane in case it crashes. We all take risks. Now,
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those few sentences right there really got my back up,
and I can only imagine how Deborah's mum, Margaret, who
had just lost her ten year old daughter, felt about
Doctor Derrick Buchanan's words and his great sympathy. It was
reported by a relative that Margaret Allen was distraught and
under sedation at her home, but that she was determined
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to uncover the truth about her daughter's death. I did
try and find out the results of inquiry into Deborah's death,
but I wasn't able to find anything. So this next
story in The Scotsman on the third of September nineteen
eighty one intrigued me enough to look into further, which
took me to May nineteen eighty two. But I'm getting
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ahead of myself. Let me start in September nineteen eighty one.
We're twenty year old Stephen thom of High Street in
Kirkcady was standing trial at the High Court in Perth,
accused of murdering forty year old William's Slight on the
foreshore near Kircawdy Esplanade. Stephen Thom claimed that he acted
in self defense. He explained that he had previously been
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beaten up by another Kirkody man and so he had
started to carry a sheath knife, which he strapped to
his leg, and so when he was accosted by William's
Slight on the foreshore at Kircady, he said, a violent
struggle ensued, with William apparently crashing down on top of
Stephen and Stephen struggling like a madman to try and
push William off him as he couldn't breathe, at which
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point Stephen drew a sheath knife and continue to fight
to free him. Stephen said that he'd forgotten about the
knife completely and never had the sensation of anything going
in or out, but thought I had perhaps stabbed him
once or twice, but it didn't look severe and he
could hear William breathing heavily. Stephen Thomb then admitted that
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he took William's wallet in the hope of trying to
identify him, denying any intent to rob him. It was
reported in court that Stephen had actually stabbed William repeatedly,
and that was all I could find from September nineteen
eighty one or the rest of that year, only one
article about the murder trial and no outcome. I almost
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gave up and wasn't going to tell you about this
story at all, as who wants to hear a story
with no outcome when there clearly should have been one.
But I persevered and eventually struck gold when I came
across the second article about this case on the seventh
of May nineteen eighty two. From that article, I found
out that at the end of the five day trial,
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the jury unanimously found Stephen Thomb guilty of murdering father
of two, williams Light, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
But that wasn't the end of the story, as the
nineteen eighty two article was headed murder conviction quashed. Apparently,
Stephen Thom had been granted an appeal of his conviction,
which was heard by three appeal judges at the Court
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of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh. After hearing Stephen's appeal, the
three appeal judges decided that Stephen Thumb's special defense of
having acted in self defense should have been accepted by
the original trial judge, and that because it hadn't been accepted,
the jury had been misdirected. Ultimately, Stephen Thumb's murder conviction
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was overturned and instead his conviction was reduced to culpable
homicide and he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
So I'm kind of glad there wasn't an outcome of
the trial, as if there had been, I'd never have
gone looking and would have missed that Stephen Thumb's conviction
had been quashed and finally a story that could have
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ended so differently. As anyone who climbs or has climbed
any of the mountains in Scotland knows, there are beautiful
views when you get up there, but they can be
so dangerous with the weather changing so quickly. Thankfully that
was not the case for the following holiday goers. Stephen
Griffiths and Christine Dickey, who were on holiday from Portland
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in Oregon, unintentionally sparked a major search operation in the
sky cooling after failing to cancel a mountain climbing route
form they had left as a designated hotel. The farm
had stated where the couple had intended to go and
that they planned to return by five p m. However,
due to mist the couple had abandoned their hike after
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three hours and returned to their car forgetting to notify
the hotel. Their oversight led to a full scale search
of the range in Gullies well into the evening by
the Sky Mountain Rescue Team, police inquiries with the US
Embassy in London and Home office centers, and radio appeals
for information. The couple were eventually located when an English
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holidaymaker who had met them on the far side of
the mountains recognized their car when he heard the appeals
on the radio and reported their car's license number to
the police. Stephen and Christine were met by police officers
as the disembarked the Hebrides Ferry at Turbert and Harris.
Surprised by the scale of the response, Stephen expressed deep
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regret for the confusion, saying that they were extremely sorry
for the trouble caused and that brings us to the
end of another Scotland Then episode. I hope you enjoyed it.
Next week I hope to release a normal Scottish Murder's
episode covering the case of Pat McAdam. So until then,
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I've been your host. Dawn, Scottish Murduch is a production
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of chlorine tone