Investigation badly off the rails from earliest weeks

[What follows is the text of a letter from Dr Morag Kerr, published on page 25 of today’s edition of The National:]

While in principle I have some sympathy with the High Court’s view that relatives of the victim should not be permitted to appeal a murder conviction, the recent ruling against the relatives of some of the Lockerbie victims would be less concerning if the Lord Advocate and the Crown Office had not spent the last five years choking off every attempt to pursue other avenues, insisting that an appeal application by these very people was the only proper way to pursue their concerns (Lockerbie families lose bid to appeal al-Megrahi verdict, The National, July 4).

In my opinion the Crown Office now knows perfectly well that the original Lockerbie investigation was badly off the rails from the earliest weeks. Conclusive evidence showing the bomb to have been introduced at Heathrow was ignored, leading to the two-year pursuit of a red herring down the blind alley that led to Malta airport and the unfortunate Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. I explain this clearly in my book Adequately Explained by Stupidity? (Matador 2013), which was submitted to the SCCRC by the legal team as part of the appeal application. Make no mistake, this new analysis of the forensic evidence proves Megrahi’s innocence beyond doubt