A MAN protesting his innocence after spending more than three years behind bars has had his appeal rejected by Scotland's top judge.
Lord Carloway heard Stephen Rodger's case yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow, along with Lord Turnbull and Lord Menzies.
As revealed in yesterday's Evening Times, Stephen claims he is innocent after being convicted of a firearms offence in 2013.
He and a friend had been driving from Stephen's house in Yorkhill on April 29, 2013, when they tried to take a photograph of a car in front's registration plate.
The vehicle, a black Corsa, had been driving around the area for three hours and the occupants had allegedly been taking photographs of people in the street.
Stephen asked his friend photograph the car when they ended up behind it at a set of traffic lights - an image which has now been recovered, and which Stephen believes proves his innocence.
Later that night passengers in the vehicle reported them to the police, claiming they were wearing balaclavas and were brandishing a gun.
Yesterday the appeal was heard before the three senior judges, with solicitor advocate Dale Hughes arguing that Stephen wasn't properly represented by his lawyers Iain Bradley and Abdullah Hamid in his initial trial.
He argued the solicitors should have requested the phone be analysed for any images of a car or registration plate.
When they took to the stand both Mr Bradley and Mr Hamid said they had no knowledge that the image existed before the trial, but were aware Stephen had said it was a mobile phone his friend was holding, and that he was trying to take a photo.
Mr Hamid said Stephen had been "crystal clear" that no relevant images were on the phone, while Mr Bradley said he was "flabbergasted" when he was told there may be a photograph .
He claims he was told about this after the first trial, which Stephen adamantly denied from the witness box.
Stephen said: " I believed the solicitor would do what he had to do. I do not have the capability to do that, especially on remand.
"Mr Hamid and Mr Bradley were fully aware of the issues with the Blackberry phone."
Stephen said he had written "several" letters to Mr Hamid before his trial, which detailed his version of events from the night of the incident.
The letters, however, have not been produced and their whereabouts are currently unknown.
Stephen was questioned over his reasons for not testifying at his original trial, which he said were because he had been advised the defence would attempt to assassinate his character.
However Mr Bradley said he understood the reason was because Stephen did not want to incriminate his friend and co-accused.
After deliberating for less than 10 minutes, Lord Carloway ruled there had been no defective representation, stating that Stephen's decision not to introduce the photograph was "strategic".
He said: "The court is satisfied that there was no defective representation in the case.
"Therefore, no miscarriage of justice occurred and the appeal is refused on that basis."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel