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Mr Big of the judicial world sets his sights on the media

HE jets around the world to be feted by wealthy tyrants involved in organised killings and corruption. 


He rose from the shadow of Barlinnie prison in Glasgow’s east end to mix with the elite of Scotland’s chattering classes. 
Far from the tenements of post-war and gang-infested Riddrie, his fortune is funnelled into a complex network of property and shares. 
With a razor-sharp mind, he treats critics with a barely concealed contempt. 
Now in his 70s, and with two sons following in his footsteps, the white-haired father-of-six retains a tight grip on his empire. 
Despite the CV, Brian Gill is not some Mr Big from the sewer of organised crime. 
He’s Scotland’s top judge whose wealth, status and overseas connections are from life on the other side of the law. 
But our two-bob crooks can but dream of the power wielded by Brian – or (according to society bible Debrett’s) the Lord Justice-General and Lord President of the Court of Session. 
Take last week for example. 
From his book-lined office in Parliament Square, Brian quietly issued a 216-word public pronouncement on a single sheet of A4. 
It amounts to a cloak of judicial ermine being placed over the workings of our criminal courts. 
He believes that us grubby hacks – and you, our readers – already know too much, saying “it is now clear that the information being disclosed is excessive”. 
He cites the Data Protection Act 1988 as his motive, when that law clearly exempts information relating to legal proceedings. 
Perhaps Lord Air Miles was inspired by his recent jolly to Qatar, whose oil-rich emirs know all about keeping the pesky media in check. 
Brian’s anti-transparency fatwa would be laughable were it not so serious. 
The free press in this country has valiantly resisted a sustained attack culminating in the tedious Leveson Inquiry – led by another judge called Brian. 
Our Brian has already overseen a creeping tightening of the media’s access to civil court cases. 
So when the police, NHS and councils pay out vast sums of taxpayers’ cash in grubby compo deals, the public are kept in the dark. 
Brian’s regressive bid to curtail access to criminal cases will be music to the ears of Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, an ex-lawyer addicted to cheap headlines about falling crime. 
The European Commission revealed two years ago that in Scotland 59 per cent of crimes reported by police to prosecutors didn’t get to court. That compares to just nine per cent in England and Wales. 
Our civil and criminal courts are in danger of becoming little more than private playgrounds for lawyers to strike secret deals. 
Eric McQueen, Scottish Court Service chief executive, should be telling his board chairman Brian to get a grip. 
In the US – where the public right to know runs through the heart of the justice system – they have the PACER website. 
Anyone, from anywhere in the world, can access 500 million court documents from all 50 states. 
Brian’s chilling 216-word edict ought to send shockwaves through the Scottish Parliament. 
He has already shown contempt for Holyrood by refusing to discuss a proposed register of interests for him and his brethren. 
Let’s hope that some of our 129 MSPs have some fire in their belly. 
It’s time for Brian and his judicial chums to learn about scrutiny and accountability. 
And perhaps his next foreign junket should be to land of the free rather than a despotic Middle East regime. 
PS – you may wonder why my pretty face is not at the top of this blog. 
Having exposed the antics of career criminals, dodgy detectives, leeching lawyers and crooked cooncillors (not forgetting “Glasgow businessmen”) it’s, er, for the best.

by Russell Findlay, first published by the Scottish Sun on 8 August, 2014:



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Russell Findlay is an investigations journalist reporting on law, politics, health, business and crime.  He is also the author of non-fiction books. A fter 25 years with various newspapers he can now be found at STV News

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