CRIMINAL RECORD WIPED BY CHANGE OF NAME

Crown Office and cops refuse to say how many times it's happened. | Campaigners demand urgent probe into 'serious judicial lapse'.

- MARK MCGIVERN

CAMPAIGNERS last nig urged police and ministers to say whether trans prison s have had records wiped clea It came after Alex Stewart known as Alan Baker when he killed a man had his previous scrubbed from records in a justice bungle.

Police Scotland and the Crown Office face calls for an urgent review of their record keeping.

The blunder came to light after a solicitor requested a standard previous convictions disclos from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal's Service on prosecution witnesses, including Stewart, in a case that involved alleged conflict inside H Greenock jail.

He was provided with full rap sheets for witnesses prisoners who had not chan their gender.

But the name change had apparently allowed trans killer Stewart to separate him from his grisly past, as the new name wasn't marked up with any convictions.

Campaigners have demands to know if other trans prisoners also have clean PC records for the new names they gave themselves.

Scottish Labour justice spokeswoman Pauline McN said: "The serious lapse in record-keeping risked und mining the judicial process anali must be fully investigated.

"It is vital that thorough a accurate records are kept for all prisoners and convicted criminals "There should be no way to erase a criminal record and we need to ensure there are policies in place to ensure that is the case." The scandal came to light duri the case of hairdresser Jayney Sutherley, who killed a man with a pair of scissors.

Sutherley, 51, was acquitted at Greenock Sheriff Court last month of carrying out a four-year campaign of transphobic and homophobic abuse against Stewart, 33, and lover Nyomi Fee, 37 - a notorious child killer.