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Girl power as Inverness Sheriff Court chooses all-female jury

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It was less 12 Angry Men and more 15 Unconvinced Women.

When Sheriff Clerk Richard Wells finished balloting from over 60 people for an Inverness Sheriff Court trial yesterday, he had “chosen” an all-female jury.

Defence solicitor Duncan Henderson said: “I have never seen that before.”

Solicitor advocate Shahid Latif, who was an interested onlooker, agreed. Mr Latif has acted on behalf of clients in countless High Court and Sheriff and Jury trials, and was equally astounded.

He said: “In all my experience, I have never seen a jury of all the same gender.”

So as the Inverness Castle prepares to move into Scotland’s first Justice Centre in late 2019, the trial of 28 year old Scott Mackay from Nairn may have made Scottish legal history.

It only lasted less than half a day and Mackay was acquitted of an assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement charge, and what could have been Scotland first all woman jury took 45 minutes to return their verdict of not proven.

A Scottish Courts spokesman said no records are kept so they can’t say whether or not this was a Scottish first.

He added: “Juries are chosen by random selection. We are not able to say whether this may have happened before but because selection is based on chance, there must remain that potential.”