A full pension hearing date

After an incredible four preliminary hearings, at heaven knows what expense to the public purse taken from council tax and income tax payers, a date has finally been set for a full pension hearing for rapist, ex-cop Adam Carruthers. Will we finally discover if rape is a pensionable occupation? Are police officers who have turned bad going to be pensioned in spite of such heinous crimes? What will that say about our society?

Many thanks to the journalists who were kind enough to get in touch and give me the date for the full hearing.

The date has been set as 18th June 2009, but one kind journalist has said that there is a chance it could happen the week before on the 11th June. The only way to find out is to log onto the Scottish Courts website and they only post up hearing 5 days beforehand. As 11th is a Thursday, it might only become public on the Monday before? That's the justice system for you. The rape trial in 2001 finally ran at it's fifth and last possible date before it became 'time barred.'

I'm not sure how civil cases work in the courts with regards to dates and if they are as unreliable on time as the criminal cases often are. I remember in 2001 being sickened at being all geared up to give evidence at the High Court only to hear that the trial had been postponed. Four postponements was not the way to treat victims of such serious crimes who all had psychological injuries as a result of the actions of Carruthers.

So come the full pension hearing I know there is a lot of support out there and there are many of you who have been in touch who wish to hold another quiet, dignified protest at the court in Dumfries when the hearing is on. This is possibly your date ....or do I mean dates?

The journalists tell me that the hearing is likely to take three days. Three days?!!! How long does it take to say that crimes of rape and sexual assault committed by a police officer on duty is not in the job description of "Protecting the public and preventing crime?" In my probable naivety I would have thought that is the crux of this case. It seems to me that three days is a long time to argue out if Carruthers can or cannot have his full police pension (gained at public expense through legal aid) yet he quite obviously committed very serious crimes and didn't protect the public at times when he was employed as a senior police officer by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary.

So is rape a pensionable occupation? We'll find out in a few months time.
June will reveal how this goes ....or will it?! I'm so cynical after my experience of years of the justice and court system and the antics of serial sex offender Adam Carruthers. I'm sure all of his victims will find it a difficult time when the case comes to court again. He won't care about that.

However, if he wins, I wonder if he'll mind if his many victims sue him? The ones who were denied justice especially have every right to do that and if he should win then he will obviously have an income at the very least - even if it's not actually in his pocket until his retirement date. A civil case does not require the same level of absolute proof that a criminal case does - it does not have to be beyond all reasonable doubt in the civil court.

Now there's an interesting scenario!