A man accused of “serious” assault charges has walked free from court after an administrative blunder led to his case being abandoned.
Muhhamad Tariq had been on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court accused of attacking a woman and child at an address in the city.
After the first day of evidence in August, which was heard before visiting sheriff Walter Mercer, the trial was adjourned and continued to September 7.
The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) then failed to arrange for Sheriff Mercer to be sitting in Aberdeen that day and the case was continued further until yesterday.
But, on Tuesday night Mr Tariq’s solicitor, Laura Gracie, received a phone call from the sheriff clerk’s office to say an administrative error had been made and as a result Sheriff Mercer would not be in Aberdeen yet again.
Yesterday Ms Gracie appeared before Sheriff Marion McDonald and asked the court not to defer the case any further in fairness to her client, and moved for the case to be disposed of.
She said: “I am relying on the principles of fairness. This is a summary court, justice is supposed to be seen to be done within a reasonable time and there have been two attempts now to complete the trial.”
Fiscal depute Karen Dow argued the alleged complainers should be treated fairly too and said the administrative error was of no fault of the Crown’s.
She said: “I think it would be unfair to conclude these proceedings because of a failure by the Scottish Court Service to provide a sheriff. These are serious charges.”
However, Sheriff McDonald agreed with Ms Gracie and said it would not be fair to Tariq to drag the matter out further.
She acquitted the 46-year-old, of Flat 2, 29 St Clement Street, Aberdeen, on two charges of assault and a charge of acting in a threatening and abusive manner.
Last night a spokesman for the Judicial Office for Scotland said: “Due to an administrative error Sheriff Mercer was allocated to another court in a different sheriffdom.
“Unfortunately, by the time the error was realised it was too late for the Sheriff to attend at Aberdeen. This is an exceptionally rare occurrence and we are reviewing our procedures to ensure this does not happen again.”
A spokeswoman for the Crown Office added: “We will give careful consideration to the decision of the court.”