Police fail to find Edinburgh Law Society Accountant`s attacker

Well, what a relief that the cops have cleared everyone on their list of suspects for the attack on Leslie Cumming - certainly it’s good news to those people whose names were maliciously given to the cops by the legal profession just to shut them up .. and well, after the Law Society gang tried to pin it on campaigners & law reformers, by setting the press on them, as Scotland On Sunday reported here :

Scotland on Sunday – Cash laundering link to law chief stabbing :

So, what now for the attacker of Leslie Cumming and the details of the case ? We haven`t really heard much of the Police theories in this case at all ... no leaked names about a client of a lawyer who had been ripped off and Cumming had failed to investigate it .. no leaked names about certain lawyers who wanted their Law Society bosses out of the way so they could get on with their crooked schemes .. nothing at all ... certainly a lot of disinformation though .. the dna discovered at the scene ... my goodness .. with all the competence of the SCRO these days, you would have surely thought they could have pinned it on someone, even maybe planted a few fingerprints just to get a conviction or at least a case going in the courts.

Attack by crooked lawyers on Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming still not solved :

Well, it`s not nice to wish someone harm of course, and I certainly don’t - unlike the bosses at the Law Society of Scotland, who have openly `joked` of my imminent death .. and a few lawyers and bent accountants in the Scottish Borders, who have had a go at trying to get me out of the way too .. but at least I have standards, unlike the crooks I investigate .. so I am pleased to see Cumming has made a recovery as I wished him, when Scotland on Sunday had a go at me over what happened, on the back of press releases from the Law Society and private briefings to reporters.

My sympathies are certainly with him over what happened - I faced a similar threat from a neighbour once over a property dispute in Jedburgh, but Lothian & Borders Police just sat on their behind and did nothing ... reason being now it seems that one of their officers was an investor with this certain neighbour ... good thing I kept the tapes though of what happened .. which is probably why I am still here to write about it.

Pity we didn't get to find out what really happened in this case though ... a disgruntled client of a crooked lawyer or a crooked lawyer out for revenge or or a gang of crooked lawyers out for revenge to cover their tracks, or even a staged attack by the legal profession itself to generate sympathy (some of the ideas which have come in from you readers by email to me) . would have made great headlines and further reading, in the wake of the Justice 2 Committee`s support for the Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill. Read on for the article, from "The Scotsman" - who have been following the case for a long time ... unlike the rest of the press :

The Scotsman reports :

Police investigation fails to uncover top official's attacker

MICHAEL HOWIE

THE investigation into a vicious knife attack on a senior Scottish legal official has been wound down after six months of police inquiries failed to identify the perpetrator, The Scotsman can reveal.

Last night the officer who led the inquiry into the stabbing of Leslie Cumming, the Law Society of Scotland's chief accountant, said hopes of finding the knifeman by analysing unidentified DNA on the victim's jacket were all but dashed. Detective Inspector Keith Hardie said comparisons between the DNA and UK police databases, containing the profiles of more than three million potential suspects, had proved fruitless.

Investigations into several lawyers and members of the public thought to have had a grudge against Mr Cumming have also drawn a blank. A sum of ￡10,000 was offered for information leading to a breakthrough, and the case was featured on the BBC programme Crimewatch. But despite the widespread publicity, police have exhausted their principal leads and reduced the number of officers working on the case from 18 to only two.

Mr Cumming, 62, was stabbed more than ten times in a secluded lane behind his home in Murrayfield, Edinburgh, as he returned from work after 5pm on January 23. His balaclava-clad attacker was believed to have been lying in wait behind a tree and attacked Mr Cumming from behind as he locked his car up. Mr Hardie broke the news to Mr Cumming on Monday that the inquiry was being scaled down.

The detective said: "I'm bitterly disappointed we haven't as yet solved this crime and I know that Mr Cumming shares this disappointment." But he is also realistic. It came as no surprise to him that the inquiry was being scaled down. "With the passage of time you become less confident but I am still interested to hear any new information from anybody. If we get a name the inquiry will be resurrected."

Police still believe a hitman was hired to carry out the attack, They compiled a list of aggrieved clients and rogue lawyers who may have ordered the stabbing. Mr Cumming's work as chief accountant for the Law Society saw him oversee investigations into allegations of theft by lawyers from clients.

But Mr Hardie said all those names had been investigated but his team were unable to find any link between them and the knifeman. He revealed that swabs were taken from several people thought to have links with the criminal world, but whose DNA profiles were not known. He said: "We will do a widened DNA sweep when more samples are added to the national DNA database. We've had some success in the past when initial DNA searches have proved fruitless."