[A report published today on the BBC News website reads as follows:]
QC Richard Keen appointed Scottish Tory Party chairman
The Scottish Conservative Party has chosen leading QC Richard Keen to be its new chairman.
The 59-year-old will stand down as dean of the Faculty of Advocates in order to take on the role, which is being vacated by Tory MP David Mundell.
Mr Keen has worked on high-profile cases, including the Lockerbie trial, and is known in the legal profession as "the Rottweiler". [RB: Richard Keen was lead defence counsel for Lamin Fhimah.]
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said she was delighted with the appointment.
She added: "As one of the UK's leading legal brains, he brings a wealth of external experience to the party, and I am looking forward to working closely with him as we lead the team at a critical time in the politics of our country.
"Richard's appointment shows the Scottish Conservatives are committed to bringing in the brightest and best people from across Scotland as we make the changes our party needs for future success."
Mr Keen said he welcomed the opportunity to take on the chairmanship at such a significant period in Scotland's political and constitutional history.
The father of two added: "As we face the potential break-up of Britain, there are many in Scotland who will be reminded of the values of our party and its role in maintaining what is so much more than just the political union of the UK."
Mr Keen will step down from his Faculty of Advocates post in January, before his political appointment.
[My former student Richard Keen is not the first Scottish Tory chairman to have a connection to the Lockerbie case. But his rôle was certainly a more distinguished one than that of his predecessor Andrew Fulton.]
QC Richard Keen appointed Scottish Tory Party chairman
The Scottish Conservative Party has chosen leading QC Richard Keen to be its new chairman.
The 59-year-old will stand down as dean of the Faculty of Advocates in order to take on the role, which is being vacated by Tory MP David Mundell.
Mr Keen has worked on high-profile cases, including the Lockerbie trial, and is known in the legal profession as "the Rottweiler". [RB: Richard Keen was lead defence counsel for Lamin Fhimah.]
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said she was delighted with the appointment.
She added: "As one of the UK's leading legal brains, he brings a wealth of external experience to the party, and I am looking forward to working closely with him as we lead the team at a critical time in the politics of our country.
"Richard's appointment shows the Scottish Conservatives are committed to bringing in the brightest and best people from across Scotland as we make the changes our party needs for future success."
Mr Keen said he welcomed the opportunity to take on the chairmanship at such a significant period in Scotland's political and constitutional history.
The father of two added: "As we face the potential break-up of Britain, there are many in Scotland who will be reminded of the values of our party and its role in maintaining what is so much more than just the political union of the UK."
Mr Keen will step down from his Faculty of Advocates post in January, before his political appointment.
[My former student Richard Keen is not the first Scottish Tory chairman to have a connection to the Lockerbie case. But his rôle was certainly a more distinguished one than that of his predecessor Andrew Fulton.]
Yeah, brain the size of a planet, we know.
ReplyDeletePity he didn't spot the evidence he had in his possesion all along that would have conclusively proved both his own client and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to be factually innocent. He wouldn't have had to resort to the cutsey legal trick that got Fhimah acquitted while landing Megrahi right in it.
Too hung up on legalities to look at the actual physical evidence, Mr. Keen. Defence fail.
Seriously, what does it say about a defender that he would spend an inordinate amount of time and energy learning all about the mathematics of the Mach stem effect so that he could demolish Prof. Peel in court. When Prof. Peel's laborious calculations were frankly neither here nor there when it came to deciding what had happened and who had caused it to happen. Virtuoso performance indeed, but absolutely zero freaking use to the accused.
ReplyDeleteBut he can't even look at the photographs of the damaged suitcases and see that the Coyle case was undoubtedly on top of the bomb suitcase, and that the suitcase that exploded was most certainly not sitting on top of another case.
I mean, it's ELEMENTARY. It's OBVIOUS. It's freaking STARING YOU IN THE FACE. You could have got both defendants acquitted right there Mr. Keen, and not just on a technicality but by actually proving they were a thousand miles from the scene of the crime. But you missed it.
Not impressed.
Syracuse Alumni Remember the Lockerbie Bombing http://www.alexiafoundation.org/2013/11/14/syracuse-alumni-remember-the-lockerbie-bombing/
ReplyDeleteI fear that url is getting me a 404.
ReplyDeleteI feel for the students and staff of Syracuse, remembering the event at this time - and every year. I still find it strange, though, that almost nobody on the US side seems even remotely concerned that the cops got the wrong modus operandi, the wrong man and probably the wrong country for the atrocity.
ReplyDelete"I mean, it's ELEMENTARY. It's OBVIOUS. It's freaking STARING YOU IN THE FACE."
But not all the time. It only stares back at you when you spot it.
I looked up the correct URL, it is:
http://www.alexiafoundation.org/blog/2013/11/14/syracuse-alumni-remember-the-lockerbie-bombing/
Thanks for the correct url, SM.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, Richard Keen was being paid to spot it. And paid extremely handsomely too. Certainly it wasn't his responsibility alone, but he was reputedly the brains of the defence teams, and it whooshed right over his head.
Of course, Hayes and Feraday were being paid to spot it too. And paid to spot it in 1989, not 1999. Theirs is the primary responsibility for the fact that the killers of the Syracuse students and all the other people who died that night got clean away.
This really is one of these things that when you spot it, the immediate response is "just shoot me now!" Just look at the photo of Johannes Schauble's suitcase, and then ask, where was the blue Tourister loaded. Just look at the much-discussed photo of Charles McKee's grey Samsonite and look at the big hole as opposed to the little one, and then look at the piece of lining fabric from Bernt Carlsson's Presikhaaf, and ask, what was on the floor of the container.
Closed minds - shockingly so. The question is, who closed them?