Iain Mckie, father of former police detective Shirley Mckie, takes the stand today to give evidence at the second phase of the ongoing public inquiry.

Mckie was scheduled to begin giving his evidence at 10.00am this morning.

The inquiry was initiated to unravel the debacle within the prosecution establishment and the Scottish Criminal Records Office which maintains it correctly identfied the fingerprint of Shirley Mckie at a murder scene. Mckie denied this and was charged with perjury, in additon to being effectively hounded out of the police force. She received a £750,000 payout in compensation, and she was acquitted of the charges.

Fingerprint experts outside the SCRO have said the print does not belong to Mckie and was misidentified.

The inquiry follows an earlier Parliamentary inquiry of the series of events which began in 1997 and are still in dispute.