UNFIT FOR INTERPOL: UK Government want to “plant their choice at the head of INTERPOL” – The not-so-secret campaign to place Scots or British top cop candidates at the head of Global Law Enforcement group in Tories “post-Brexit INTERPOL strategy”

UK Tory Govt want their choice for INTERPOL boss AN ONGOING media investigation into why Police Scotland stalled the release of the registers of interests of current & recently retired senior Police Officers - has heard claims the force was told to refuse or delay the release of information - to assist the Conservative UK Government’s ‘post-Brexit INTERPOL strategy’ efforts “to plant their choice at the head of INTERPOL” - the Global policing organisation .

Journalists began investigating claims the Tories wanted to place a Scottish Policing figure at the heart of INTERPOL last year, after material was handed to the media on the extent of lobbying by the Scottish & UK Governments to bring the INTERPOL 2024 conference to Glasgow, in November 2024 – with the Tory UK Government able to announce their choice of Boss to influence and lead the Global Law Enforcement organisation.

Material released under Freedom of Information legislation by the Scottish Government confirmed some aspects of information already handed to journalists – claims which were backed up in the content of Freedom of Information disclosures and content in a letter written by Emma Gibbons, Head of International Law Enforcement Cooperation Unit at the UK Home Office.

Emma Gibbons wrote: “I am writing to you as the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for delivery of the UK-hosted INTERPOL General Assembly (GA) 2024, which will take place in Glasgow in the first week of November next year. As SRO, I lead the Home Office delivery team and hold overall responsibility for the event, including the use of the budget. I am supported by the Home Office INTERPOL team as the central co-ordinating delivery team, who oversee the governance detailed below and manage the day to day preparations for this event, working hand in glove with the NCA NCB.”

Ms Gibbons continued: “This is a genuinely exciting event, marking the culmination of the Government’s 5 year, post Brexit INTERPOL strategy. It will see the election of a new leadership team to the organisation in addition, we hope, to the election of a UK national as the new Secretary General.”

“Hosting the event gives the UK a headline role in a major international law enforcement diplomatic event and secures the UK’s place as a world-leader in law enforcement. This is key to the UK’s intention to remain at the forefront of global law enforcement cooperation. With this in mind, event delivery will require collaboration across all units, departments, and organisations, which is why your contribution is crucial for the event’s overall success”

The Freedom of Information disclosures from the Scottish Government can be viewed or downloaded at these links:

(1: FOI - INTERPOL GA - 202300384398 - FINAL RELEASE (2): FOI - INTERPOL GA - 202300384398 - Email Attachments (3): Scottish Government FOI Response-202300384398

Earlier this week, journalists heard allegations from a whistle-blower who provided credible evidence the beleaguered Scottish Police Service had been told to stall any related data disclosures on senior Police Officers - while the UK Government sought to select a candidate for the INTERPOL Secretary General election later this year.

The claims – by a Policing insider – point to fears within UK policing circles that several current & former senior officers from Police Scotland may be seen internationally as too controversial because of their past records in Policing

A reading of the histories of several but not all of the Scottish Policing candidates currently being considered, or in some cases supported by the Conservative UK Government, reveal some of the following information:

One candidate was directly involved in an illegal spying operation to plant electronic surveillance tools on journalists and others digital devices, and was considered to have been part of a move by corruption unit officers to destroy records of investigations including fake passports, false identities and alleged serious criminality.

A second candidate was alleged to have given false evidence to an independent investigation on operational Policing issues, submitted false evidence to a Scottish Parliament Committee and in relation to their job received secret cash payments for employment related issues to help the officer avoid paying tax.

A third candidate was previously accused of multiple allegations of serious sexual assault.

Additional information provided in relation to Scottish Policing candidates also revealed a history of drunken misconduct, complaints from fellow officers of threatening behaviour, several accusations of assault, and a newly discovered file of complaints and poor professional conduct while in an earlier career.

Speaking to journalists earlier this week, the whistle-blower alleged Police Scotland had been told to stall the release of information in relation to Freedom of Information requests for the Registers of Interests of current and recently retired senior Police Officers.

Journalists also heard how figures from the Scottish and UK Government had become involved in the apparent secrecy around what transpires to be already released material from several years back.

A memo shown to a journalist by the whistle-blower reads to the effect that all effort should be made to delay, or refuse release of the information relating to current and former senior officers at Police Scotland and to refuse to give any response to media enquiries.

The material contained in the Registers of Interest for Senior Police Officers - which Police Scotland have been stalling to release an updated version for several months - was published in an earlier release form by this blog in an earlier article here: POLICE DECLARED: Cops Interests Register reveals controversial Chief Constable retains Law Society of Scotland membership, holds seat on ‘Sentencing Council’ quango – yet details fail to give clear picture of highly paid top cops links, interests

The information contained in the earlier version of the Police Scotland Register of Interests follows:

CC Iain Livingstone:

Public Appointments: Member - Independent Steering Group (Op Kenova), Reviewed Annually - No remuneration.

Member - Scottish Sentencing Council, Reviewed Annually - No remuneration.

No Financial and Business interests No Political activity No related party transactions No conflict of interest

DCC Fiona Taylor:

No Public Appointments

Financial and Business interests - Owns a flat which is let No Political activity No related party transactions No conflict of interest

ACC Bernard Higgins:

Public Appointments: Trustee - Police Care UK (formerly known as Police Dependents Trust), May 2013 - Present - No remuneration.

Board Member - Euro 2020 Local Organising Committee, 2017 - Present - No remuneration

No Financial and Business interests No Political activity No related party transactions No conflict of interest

ACC Angela McLaren:

Public Appointments: Trustee - The Police Treatment Centres, for a period of 3 years - No remuneration. - Companies House shows Appointed on: 01st December 2018.

Trustee - St George's Police Children Trust, for a period of 3 years - No remuneration. - Companies House shows appointed on 1st December 2018.

No Financial and Business interests No Political activity No related party transactions No conflict of interest

ACC Paul Anderson:

Public Appointments: Chair Racing Committee, Scottish Canoe Association, 2019-2020 - No remuneration.

No Financial and Business interests No Political activity No related party transactions No conflict of interests

Other Executive Officers

DCC Johnny Gwynne (retired 15/03/2019 but in post at the date of your request); DCC Will Kerr; ACC Mark Williams; ACC John Hawkins; ACC Gillian MacDonald; ACC Alan Speirs; ACC Malcolm Graham; ACC Steve Johnson;

No Public Appointments No Financial and Business interests No Political activity No related party transactions No conflict of interest

The above details were released to journalists in 2019.

However, in a short Freedom of Information response dated 21 December 2023 to a FOI request late last year by journalists - Police Scotland refused to provide any substantive information on Senior Officers interests and instead only released the following sentence:

“In response, I can advise that 2 members of Force Executive have registered interest for Property Letting and Shop or other like business between the dates of your request.”

An FOI review request regarding the limited disclosure, and failure to provide any real information on senior Police Officers interests was submitted in December 2023 - to which no response has yet been received even with the Scottish Information Commissioner’s office being notified of delays.

The full text of the Home Office letter on the INTERPOL Glasgow Conference can be viewed below:

I am writing to you as the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for delivery of the UK-hosted INTERPOL General Assembly (GA) 2024, which will take place in Glasgow in the first week of November next year. As SRO, I lead the Home Office delivery team and hold overall responsibility for the event, including the use of the budget. I am supported by the Home Office INTERPOL team as the central co-ordinating delivery team, who oversee the governance detailed below and manage the day to day preparations for this event, working hand in glove with the NCA NCB.

This is a genuinely exciting event, marking the culmination of the Government's 5 year, post Brexit INTERPOL strategy. It will see the election of a new leadership team to the organisation in addition, we hope, to the election of a UK national as the new Secretary General. Hosting the event gives the UK a headline role in a major international law enforcement diplomatic event and secures the UK's place as a world-leader in law enforcement. This is key to the UK's intention to remain at the forefront of global law enforcement cooperation. With this in mind, event delivery will require collaboration across all units, departments, and organisations, which is why your contribution is crucial for the event's overall success.

To ensure there is an effective level of join-up, we have agreed a delivery governance structure. At the top-level lies the GA Senior Group who will meet on an ad-hoc basis this year, moving to a more frequent rhythm of meetings in 2024. This group will maintain grip and confidence for seniors directly responsible for delivering the event, including reporting to Ministers, and managing any high-level risks. This group will also be used as the escalation route for urgent decisions. The Senior Group are all represented at working level in the GA Working Group.

The GA Working Group is the primary forum to manage working level delivery of the General Assembly; it tracks progress against key delivery milestones from now until the event in 2024. Attendees should be empowered to make decisions on behalf of their organisation/department and should be considered as responsible for driving forward relevant areas of event delivery as agreed by the group.

Ten subgroups feed into the GA Working Group (see Annex). They are there to support the Working Group in informed decision-making. The members of the subgroups are the subject matter experts; your expertise is crucial in supporting the delivery of this event. I therefore want to thank you for taking part as a key member of the Borders and Immigration subgroup and ask that you ensure that updates and issues for your specific delivery area are raised with the group in a timely fashion. The issues should be reported on and shared appropriately to the wider INTERPOL General Assembly 2024 Working Group, the Home Office planning committee, myself, and any other senior boards as necessary. It is essential that subgroups log notable risks and issues that could impact the delivery of the General Assembly 2024. Increasing risk items must be escalated via the boards outlined in the governance structure detailed above in which the Working Group feeds into. In the case of high-level risks, the ad-hoc Senior Group will be used as an escalation route for urgent decisions and risks.

We will also report progress against delivery into two additional boards to provide confidence at a senior level and a means of ensuring comprehensive communication to those involved: the Home Office led International Criminality Cooperation Board (ICCB) and the joint HO/NCA INTERPOL Strategy Delivery Board (ISDB). Both the ICCB and the ISDB will be used to keep senior stakeholders informed on planning progress in key areas. If you have any boards in your specific areas of delivery who you think need to be kept sighted do let us know.

The ISDB will agree sign-off on some of the more significant, high cost, or strategically important decisions in relation to the General Assembly 2024 planning. The ISDB will also approve any key delivery plans for the General Assembly and will be provided with regular updates from the Working Group. The key decisions made in these ISDB meetings will be fed into the ICCB for information and for comment where necessary.

This is a major event, with all that entails, but with close collaboration and regular communication, underpinning the principle of "no surprises", I am confident we can deliver a successful UK-hosted General Assembly 2024. If you have any concerns please do contact me or the team.

Journalists will continue to work on the investigation into how the UK Government is campaigning to put a UK Policing figure at the head of Interpol/

If readers, whistle-blowers or insiders have any information with regard to issues involving Police Scotland and Registers of Interests involving Police Officers, or the Conservative UK Government’s determination to get their candidate into the driving seat of INTERPOL - please contact the blog with further details either via the comments section or email us at scottishlawreporters@gmail.com or contact our journalists as per usual arrangements.

POLICE SCOTLAND: Non Disclosure Agreements, whistle-blower witch-hunts, £Ms paid to silence victims, institutionally discriminatory & corrupt – The Scottish Govt Policing PR machine & lawyer-led Scottish National Police service that simply ran out of lies

Outgoing Chief Constable Iain Livingstone. FOR FIVE YEARS and despite publicly aired views of former senior Police officers against his appointment - Scotland’s National Police service has been lawyer-led by a Chief Constable - who was once accused, then ‘cleared’ by a Tribunal composed of male Police colleagues - of FIVE allegations of serious sexual assault made against him by a female Police officer.

On 23 February 2023, just days after Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation as First Minister on 15 February 2023 - Chief Constable Iain Livingstone announced his own resignation and intention to ‘retire’ from leading Police Scotland – with a lengthy departure date of August 2023.

However, in the weeks which followed the Chief Constable’s long goodbye to Scotland’s decimated national Police service - Mr Livingstone took the opportunity to brand Police Scotland as Institutionally discriminatory, institutionally sexist and instructionally racist.

What followed was a very scripted set of headlines involving public inquiries, SNP politicians praising the outgoing Chief Constable, and gangland representing lawyers seeking their own ego boosting headlines in what many came to realise was a carefully orchestrated exercise in press releases and organised spin.

However – Chief Constable Iain Livingstone was certainly not wrong in his accusations against his own Scottish National Police service.

Indeed, across five years of presiding over Police Scotland, the outgoing Chief Constable – who was branded unfit to lead Police Scotland by former Assistant Chief Constable Angela Wilson, and a host of public critics & campaigners – must shoulder some of the blame for a dysfunctional Police Service which – at low points – assisted the Lord Advocate & Crown Office in fitting up prosecutions against persons whose crimes did not exist – most notably the Administrators & Accountants of Rangers Football Club.

However, fitting up prosecutions on a £100 Million scale with the cooperation, orders even – of Scotland’s top law officers, top prosecutors and even with the evidenced involvement of the judiciary itself in the plot to lock up a few accountants for events which were mostly made-up – are but one entry in a long list of greed, avarice & corruption within Scotland’s National Police service and across key stakeholders in Scotland’s justice system – from the Crown Office to the Scottish Government itself.

But lets not kid ourselves everyone. We knew it all along, right?

The Scottish Government and it’s slavishly political, critic & media hostile - intensive Civil Servant-Special Adviser Policing group – were hell bent on control of almost every facet of Policing in Scotland and were grimly determined to ensure Scotland’s National Police Service drifted into the same chasm of control freakery, public relations and spin as the SNP Scottish Government live by each day and eek out their grim control over public life until the next week and the next scandal.

Few surprises there - as control freakery, PR and spin is so typical of the way the Scottish Government and every public organisation and regulator in Scotland operates – when faced with questions and scrutiny of the level of wrongdoing & dishonesty in whichever public authority is under the microscope that particular day.

To back up Iain Livingstone’s scripted admission of institutionally everything-wrong at his own five year grip on power Police Scotland, a series of senior officers were paraded on television to support the Chief Constable’s claims – with absolutely not one sounding believable in any of their responses.

And, to round off the increasingly diversionary campaign of ruining the reputation of Policing in Scotland to take the cameras and attention away from high profile political resignations and investigations into political funding – which appear to be more focussed on what they cannot prove rather than going after actual events and a rather complicated set of – lets call it “Heather Capital” type activities – the Chief Constable’s sexist, discriminatory & institutionally corrupt Police Service scandals were capped off with an arranged slew of new female officer appointments and the appointment of a female Chief Constable to replace Mr Livingstone.

If only it would be advantageous to publish the chat apps content of senior lawyers, civil servants and others on these few weeks of a dodgy Scottish National Police Service, and the dodgiest of dodgy Scottish Governments, ever.

Lets return to some of those issues in the headlines.

Non Disclosure Agreements at Police Scotland under Chief Constable Iain Livingstone – have seen millions of pounds in public cash paid out to victims of wrongdoing, corruption, sexism and misogyny during Livingstone’s five year grip on power at Scotland’s lawyer-led National Police Service – and millions of pounds more of public cash in the five years preceding Livingstone’s appointment as the preferred Scottish Government candidate of Chief Constable in 2018.

For years – cases of wrongdoing in policing – from the time of Scotland’s eight forces to the creation of Police Scotland by the SNP Scottish Government in 2014 – have been looked at by blog journalists.

The numbers are big, the pay-outs to victims even bigger, the wrongdoing, corruption, sexism, misogyny, vendetta witch-hunts of sources to journalists, pursuit of police officers who lodge legitimate grievances on issues relating to their service - and targeting of whistle-blowers has been – and remains to this day – off the scale.

It should not surprise readers that private law firms, solicitors, ‘leading’ members of the Faculty of Advocates & even some members of Scotland’s judiciary – have also collectively gained millions of pounds of public cash over the past decade in burying scandals for Police Scotland and forcing victims to sign Non Disclosure Agreements to prevent anyone talking to the media, public, their families and friends - or even their elected political representatives and the Scottish Parliament.

Readers can view earlier Freedom of Information disclosures obtained by blog journalists here Police Scotland - Non Disclosure Agreements FOI - 2019 which give some idea of the scale of pay-outs and a very limited understanding of the level of institutional wrongdoing at Police Scotland.

More than 20 victims of discrimination and wrongdoing who received financial compensation from Police Scotland were gagged from speaking publicly and the FOI material reveals Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) were used in at least 21 cases in which pay-outs totalling £677,389 were made to police officers, civilian staff and members of the public.

At least ten police constables, an inspector, a sergeant and four civilian workers were found to have signed Non Disclosure Agreements, involving a variety of discrimination disputes on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, disability and age.

Other Non Disclosure Agreements involving Police Scotland related to wrongful arrest, personal injury and unfair dismissal and a whistle-blower was required to sign an NDA.

In the figures which go up to the year 2019 – Scotland’s National Police service paid an additional £203,380 to cover victims’ legal fees – bringing the total cost to taxpayers to £880,769 over six years.

Initially – and as is routine with all Scottish Public Authorities – Police Scotland refused to identify the law firms which received public cash in relation to Non Disclosure Agreements. The data was only obtained after requests for FOI Reviews were lodged – naming the following law firms in figures: Clyde & Co solicitors £50,782.20, Morton Fraser Solicitors £72,162.56, Thorntons Solicitors £4,910.40.

And in an additional refusal by Police Scotland to identify law firms involved in Non Disclosure Agreements – again for figures up to 2019 – the same law firms were again identified in an FOI review disclosure – Morton Fraser Solicitors £22,208.80, Clyde & Co solicitors £41,460.01

Police Scotland’s key role in the malicious prosecution of the Rangers Administrators has been well documented on this blog PROSECUTION ADVOCATE: Conflicts of interest, failure to recuse & judge swapping in court - Rangers Admin malicious prosecution case illustrates why Scotland’s Prosecutors & Judiciary must be required to register, declare & publish all their interests - and publish all details of judges’ recusals from court hearings, and more widely in the media.

There also remains no further disclosure by Police Scotland into the allegations of five serious sexual assaults against the outgoing Chief Constable Iain Livingstone – information which Police Scotland refused to release to Freedom of Information requests by blog journalists in an article reported earlier here: TOP COP SECRETS: Transparency lacking at Police Scotland as spy scandal cops refuse to disclose files on complaints & historical sexual assault case details involving Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone

Curiously, in the past year – several media publications published articles identifying outgoing Chief Constable Iain Livingstone as a “Frontrunner” for the positions of Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service for London , and “Frontrunner” for the post of Director of the UK National Crime Agency.

As readers will be well aware - both positions were filled by other candidates.

Interestingly and perhaps coincidentally - INTERPOL – the International Police Agency recently announced – apparently after much lobbying – the annual Interpol General Assembly is to be held next year in Glasgow, 2024.

The choice, which would be as odd as a group of environmental campaigners choosing to hold their gathering in the middle of an oil refinery – is coincidentally slated for the same year to which candidates for the 2025 Interpol Presidency will begin lobbying for their chance to follow several well known – and even some later jailed figures – to become the new Interpol President in 2025.

A previous example of Interpol Presidency candidates cite the following:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-11-20/debates/59705E54-A997-4F64-AFCA-2D4200158A62/InterpolPresidencyElection

The Minister for Africa (Harriett Baldwin)

Interpol is currently holding its general assembly in Dubai, and a UK delegation, led by Lynne Owens, the director general of the National Crime Agency, is there at the moment. Interpol is electing a new president at the general assembly after former Interpol president and Chinese Vice-Minister of Public Security, Meng Hongwei, resigned from the position on Sunday 7 October after Chinese authorities confirmed that he had been detained and is being investigated on anti-corruption charges.

Two candidates have formally declared for the post and remain in the running as candidates. They are current acting president South Korean Kim Jong Yang and Russian vice-president—one of four vice-presidents—Alexander Prokopchuk. Members of Interpol at the general assembly will vote on the next president on Wednesday. We do not speculate on the outcome of the election, but the UK supports the candidacy of acting president Kim Jong Yang.

Sir Vince Cable

Can the Minister confirm that the British Government are doing all they can to campaign against the candidacy of Mr Prokopchuk? Will she confirm that, until recently, he was head of the central bureau in Russia and was directly responsible for the issuing of red notices, which have been abused and used against opponents of the Putin regime—such as Mr Bill Browder, the proponent of the Magnitsky sanctions? Does she not agree that if this Russian gentleman were to become head of Interpol, it would be an absolute insult to the victims of the Salisbury incident?

Will the Minister explain how the Government intend to pursue their own pursuit of red notices in Russia with that gentleman in this post? Does she not accept that, if this gentleman were to succeed in his election, this would be a massive propaganda victory for the Putin regime, just ahead of a vote in the European Union on fresh sanctions? Would it, in effect, not amount to accepting that Interpol has become a branch of the Russian mafia? I use my words carefully when I say that. Finally, does this not underline the absolute folly of undermining in any way Europol at a time when Interpol is becoming totally dysfunctional and potentially corrupted?

Harriett Baldwin

The right hon. Gentleman raises a number of points. The central point is to clarify for the House the role of the secretary general of Interpol, who, of course, is the German Jürgen Stock. He has the executive role of day-to-day responsibility for the conduct of Interpol, and the UK confirms that it has a very good working relationship with him.

The right hon. Gentleman also raises the question about the candidacy of the current vice-president of the organisation. The UK, as I said in my opening remarks, will be supporting the candidacy of the acting vice-president, Kim Yong Yang. We always seek to endorse candidates who have a history of observing standards of international behaviour.

With regard to the point that the right hon. Gentleman makes about the potential for misuse of Interpol, red notices are a very important point. He will be aware of the systems that are in place to protect individuals’ rights and, indeed, of article 3 of the Interpol constitution, which forbids any organisation to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character. Of course, there need to be safeguards, and this Government take any misuse of Interpol notices very, very seriously.

Interestingly, the lobbying – both at National UK level and in Scotland – for a UK/Scotland candidate to ensnare, be ‘elected to’ or assume the Interpol 2025 Presidency - is highly reminiscent of recent attempts to place certain Scots figures in policing positions outside of Scotland – none of which appear to have succeeded given these individuals pasts.

The lobbying between administrations resorted to embittered strings of emails and Chat app platform communications, including claims several detailed reports in newspapers of officers pasts “had been withdrawn and therefore should be discounted in considering applications” and that “a segment in a television interview was misinformed and contained patently false information”.

The exchanges between advisers, media communications officers & administrations on lobbying attempts, currently cannot be published for legal reasons - however the attempts by some within government, at Scotland & UK level to engineer candidates for jobs without serious interviews, and deploy comms officers, even politicians to brief against the media in what became an increasingly bitter recruitment process and ultimately concluded in all parties engaging in infighting – are certainly of public interest in terms of who is appointed to which role in the UK, and why.

Historically, when it comes to any form of transparency and accountability for Police Scotland and policing organisation in Scotland – every effort appears to be expended to ensure secrecy on all fronts remains the case as this blog has previously reported: FOI PROBE: Holyrood Committee hear Scottish Information Commissioner backed off promise to bring Freedom of Information to Scottish Police Federation - even after Info. Tsar knew England & Wales Police Fed. already complied with FOI legislation

And finally – Three sourced tips in relation to stories being looked into.

An audio file submitted to a number of journalists reveals a recently retired policing figure and frequent user of sauna shops - boasted of holding information in relation to politicians and a financial scandal relating to cash and goods - to which the existence of this information was used to gain political lobbying and favours. A crime journalist confirmed the identity of persons in the audio.

An opportunity for that person or others with knowledge of this matter exists to contact journalists and answer questions on why this policing figure’s organisation felt it could play politics and gain favours - in relation to information clearly accumulated as a result of investigations – and why ageing, named former politicians were paid to lobby for, and attack journalists, critics - on behalf of this policing organisation.

Long running enquiries into court cases and complaints investigations revealed the use of Scotland based Private Investigator firms recruiting former Police Officers to utilise in-person surveillance on litigants, solicitors and journalists. Certain of these cases saw persons working for PI firms gaining entry to offices and litigants homes, images of which were recorded on camera equipment. Blog journalists are open to hear explanations from these firms and any employees in relation to their activities.

A long running investigation of digital surveillance employed by organisations in Scotland – which began with the Emma Caldwell case – turned up evidence of a highly organised cyber-hacking ring – which appears to have involvement of former Police Officers from a UK force other than Scotland, England & Wales which continues to snoop on newsrooms and identified journalists, and others including what appear to be opposition politicians.

Emails between lawyers & identified former officers revealed these ex cops regularly offer their services to law firms and any organisation which will hire then. To put it bluntly, these former officers boast of their technical proficiency in defending against cyber-attacks and taking the surveillance and cyber war back to those who whichever entity or organisation perceive as an enemy.

One of the lawyers boasting to clients of how they can deploy ex Police professionals to hack their way through opposing clients and legal representation’s files – sits on committees formed by Scotland’s current top judge – making the link between the judiciary and this surveillance enterprise as clear as was the case in the Emma Caldwell case. If anyone wants to talk, get in touch.

Lastly – Chose your method of giving tips to journalists carefully. Major social media platforms owned by a variety of anti-transparency vested interests - are a no-go area as your Direct Messages and similar are often read before the intended journalists gain sight of it – as a Digital Media employee from a political party recently confirmed in lengthy chats with example communications provided to journos.