QUOTE (horse @ Sun, 31 Dec 2006 - 11:40)
Though isnt perverting the course of justice a bit of a grey area, because he was making decisions on DPE -
I used to think that perverting the course of justice wasn't applicable because, being decriminalised, there wasn't any course of justice to pervert. But in the infamous Bolton (?) fabricated photographs case, someone was convicted of that. There's a link in here somewhere, but I can't find it.
QUOTE (horse @ Sun, 31 Dec 2006 - 11:40)
and is the police the only prosecuting authority for this, or are private criminal prosecutions possible...?
That's a separate issue. In Scotland, unlike in England, private criminal prosecutions are virtually unheard of, and can't, in reality, proceed without the Crown Office's O.K., which they won't give, except in truly exceptional circumstances.