Contempt of court
HM Advocate v Murray [2021] HCJ 2, 2021 Scot (D) 28/3
High Court of Justiciary: In contempt proceedings concerning articles the respondent published on his website in the wake of the arrest and subsequent prosecution of Alex Salmond, on an indictment containing charges of alleged sexual offences against several women, said to have been committed whilst he was First Minister of Scotland, the court held that an article the respondent published on 30 March 2020 did not breach an order under s 4(2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 which the court imposed on 23 March 2020 in respect of proceedings against a juror; the part of the petition alleging contraventions of ss 1 and 2 of the 1981 Act in that that there was a substantial risk of prejudice to the proceedings in HM Advocate v Salmond created by the respondent’s publications of 23 August 2019 and 18 January 2020 must be refused, no justification having been offered for delaying bringing the petition until a month after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings; however several articles which
