Mason: 'Probably acceptable 1 per cent of prisoners are innocent'

The Herald Scotland

4 days ago

Currently, there are 8234 prisoners in Scotland's prisons, with one per cent representing 82 prisoners.
But when approached by The Herald on Sunday Mr Mason, who represents Glasgow Shettleston, appeared to backtrack on his argument.
"It is not appropriate for one innocent person to be in prison or one guilty person to be out free in society. But we live in an imperfect world where I suspect in every country some people are wrongly imprisoned and some are wrongly free. So it is a question of trying to get the balance right," he said.
READ MORE:
His original view was made in correspondence with campaign group Justice for Innocent Men Scotland (JIMS). The group wrote to MSPs following concerns raised by advocate Thomas Leonard Ross KC that the interpretation by the courts of laws around the admissibility of evidence – brought in to protect the privacy and dignity of complainers in sexual offence cases – were risking the right of the accused to a fair trial.
Mr Ross told The Herald last month: "How can it be said that someone has had a fair trial when it's been proved that the complainer lied about something important in the course of the inquiry and that was not allowed to be introduced as evidence?
"There are serious concerns that people are not getting a fair trial when they are not being given the opportunity to provide evidence which might support their innocence."
The situation revolves around what evidence is allowed to be heard in open court before a jury.
There are strict rules about what evidence can be heard in court in rape trials (Image: Jamie Simpson) Sometimes known as "rape shield" laws, specific provisions to regulate the use of sexual history evidence were first introduced in Scotland by the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1985.
These provisions were later repeated in sections 274 and 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. In response to concerns about their operation, the provisions in the 1995 Act were replaced by new sections 274 and 275 in 2002.
After Mr Ross's intervention in The Herald the JMIS campaign group wrote to MSPs seeking to highlight the concerns he raised including over rules around the admissibility of evidence in sexual offence cases.
"Sections 274 and 275 routinely block the defence from raising crucial facts about accusers, including prior false claims, mental health concerns, or motivations for fabrication," they wrote.
"At the same time, prosecutors are free to attack the accused's character at will."
Thomas Leonard Ross (Image: PA) Mr Mason wrote back to the campaigners saying he took their point that "a few people who are innocent have been found guilty by the courts and are wrongly imprisoned" but went on to argue that "the much greater problem is guilty men who have been let off by the courts and who should be in prison but are not".
He then referred to the case of the former Scotland striker David Goodwillie.
A civil court found in 2017 that the footballer and his former teammate David Robertson raped Denise Clair, but no criminal charges were filed against the pair.
In February this year it was reported that legal aid has been approved to fund an application for the private prosecution of Mr Goodwillie for rape.
Mr Mason added: "We need to get a better balance, especially in rape cases so that more men are found guilty and are punished."
Independent MSP John Mason (Image: Andrew Milligan)
In further correspondence on the same day Mr Mason expanded on his views before claiming: "You ask how many innocent people in prison is acceptable. As I said we are trying to get a balance in all of this.
"I would have thought that one percent of prisoners being innocent is probably acceptable but 20% would not be. The counter argument would be how many guilty people is it acceptable to escape conviction?"
He went on to say he would welcome approaches from constituents concerned about wrongful convictions and would look into the cases.
The Herald on Sunday approached Mr Mason for a further explanation.
"In an ideal world all the innocent people should be free and outside prison while all the guilty ones should be inside or punished in other ways. So in one sense it is not acceptable for one innocent person to be inside or one guilty person to be outside," he said.
"However, we do not live in an ideal world. Witnesses lie in court, some people get a much better lawyer than others, judges can make mistakes, and juries can be swung by emotions or other factors.
"So I am afraid that we are never going to have a system which gets every case absolutely right. We have to live with the reality that 0.1% or 1% or 10% of cases might end up in the wrong result.
"So I think as a society we are trying to get the balance right… not having too many innocent people in jail and not having too many criminals escaping conviction."
He added: "When it comes to rape and other sexual offences, the perpetrators are almost always men and the victims are almost always women. There has been a long running feeling that too many men who are guilty of these offences are getting off because there is little corroboration and the bar in a criminal court is too high.
"Previous discussions have included whether the need for corroboration could be amended and I think this has happened to some extent. But I remain of the view that we have not got the balance right in rape cases and too many guilty men are escaping.
"One example in recent years has been David Goodwillie. I feel the women were let down in this case and when my team Clyde FC signed him for the second time I stopped attending their games and have not been back since.
"So while I would be sympathetic to anyone who is in prison and is innocent, and if it is a constituent I would be happy to get involved, I do not think the main problem we face in our criminal justice system is having too many innocent people in jail."
Elaine Buckle, 60, of Pembrokeshire, whose husband Brian, 53, spent five and a half years in prison following a wrongful conviction, was shocked by Mr Mason's views.
Elaine and Brian Buckle (Image: Elaine Buckle) "I don't agree with John Mason at all and as far as I can see he has no understanding of what it is like to be accused, convicted and to spend time in prison for something you haven't done," Ms Buckle, a supporter of the group JMIS, told The Herald.
She added that her family had been left devastated by her husband's wrongful conviction.
"Brian still struggles with his time in prison and suffers flash backs," she said.
She added that before he went to prison he had had a highly paid job as a construction manager but now struggled with post traumatic stress syndrome as a result of his wrongful conviction and imprisonment and was unable to look for work.
Read more:
Mr Buckle was wrongly convicted in 2017 of 16 counts of historical child sex abuse and sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, a subsequent trial with new forensic evidence led to his conviction being quashed.
In the Commons, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has described Mr Buckle's case as a 'grave miscarriage of justice.'
There have been longstanding concerns about the low conviction for rape than other crimes.
Conviction for rape cases involving a single complainer is 24% compared to the overall conviction rate for all crime is 86%.
Speaking to The Herald last month, Mr Ross said it was misleading to compare conviction rates for different types of crime.
"In a murder case there might be 15 sources of evidence, from eyewitnesses, DNA, finger prints in murder cases, while in a rape case just there is very often only one source of evidence – namely the person making the complaint.
"So it's entirely unsurprising that there are lower conviction rates for rape than murder."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman has previously said: 'Everyone has the right to a fair trial and to appeal against a conviction or sentence. There are well-established rules on what evidence can be led in sexual offences trials, and clear routes to challenge how these are applied.'