Scotland’s Worst offenders want their say on election day

Killer leads fight by sex criminals for the vote

By Ryan Crighton

Published:

William Beggs: campaign

More than 200 of Scotland’s worst sex offenders are fighting for the right to vote in a campaign being led by one of the country’s most notorious killers.

The Press and Journal can reveal that 224 inmates at Peterhead Prison have contacted the north-east’s electoral body to register for future elections.

Grampian Valuation Joint Board has rejected all the applications but 65 inmates have launched a legal challenge against the decision.

The man at the forefront of the campaign is “Limbs in the Loch” killer William Beggs, who has now taken his appeal to the highest court in the land.

Britain is one of only nine European countries – including Russia, Bulgaria and Romania – where convicted prisoners are banned from voting, although in some countries, such as France and Spain, judges can impose the loss of voting rights as an additional punishment.

However, the law could change in the UK following a landmark hearing in Strasbourg in 2005 that ruled the ban was “incompatible” with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees “the right to free elections”.

The UK Ministry of Justice has since drafted legislation under which some prisoners jailed for four years or less would be allowed to elect MPs, MSPs and councillors – although the most “serious and dangerous” offenders would still be banned from taking part in polls.

Justice Minister Michael Willis said giving some prisoners the right to vote was unavoidable because of the European ruling.

It is understood that most of the prisoners at Peterhead – which holds about 300 of Scotland’s most dangerous child molesters and rapists – would still be banned if the new laws were passed.

Since January 2007, the total number of requests from Peterhead prisoners for voter registration is 224 – 138 in 2007-08 and 86 in 2008-09.

All requests were dismissed and 65 inmates have since appealed to the sheriff courts. Two appeals were abandoned and five are due to be heard later this month.

In October 2008, Sheriff Colin Harris, sitting at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, rejected appeals from 12 prisoners, including Beggs, for the right to vote. Seventeen other prisoners later met the same fate.

Beggs has since lodged an appeal at the Court of Session against the sheriff’s decision but the case is on hold while the murderer attempts to secure legal aid.

His application is understood to have been refused and a spokesman for the Grampian Valuation Joint Board said it was waiting to see what would happen.

Beggs could represent himself and is understood to have almost completed a legal degree since being jailed for life in 1999 for the murder of 18-year-old Barry Wallace, whose legs were found in Loch Lomond.

The other 29 appeals are on hold until his case is resolved.

Paul Martin MSP, Labour’s spokesman on community safety, believes no prisoner should be allowed to vote, particularly those at Peterhead, who had committed “grotesque” crimes.

He said: “The public want to see these people in prison and I think it is quite right that they lose out on certain civil liberties, such as the right to vote, especially when you consider the grotesque crimes which have been committed by some of those serving their sentences in Peterhead.”

Aberdeenshire councillor Sam Coull, whose ward includes Peterhead Prison, fears prisoners would find “more sympathetic ears” if they took their fight to the European courts.

Defending

He said: “The Grampian Valuation Joint Board has already spent thousands of pounds defending these appeals, and I really fear what could happen if someone takes this to the European Court of Human Rights, where they believe everyone should vote.

“Will these people end up winning compensation if they are successful in appealing? If so, it could open the floodgates to millions of pounds’ worth of compensation claims.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said a prisoner’s right to vote was a matter for government and the courts.

“If it was decided that they had the right to vote, then we would have to make the facilities available for them to do that,” he said.

A spokesman for the Scottish Legal Aid Board said no prisoners had been given public cash so far for their legal bids.

He said: “Prisoners can apply, but to date these have been refused on the grounds that it would not be reasonable to make public funds available.”

The Scotland Office department of the UK Government said there was no ruling at the moment entitling prisoners to compensation for being denied the vote.