Record Gives Fettes Press Office The Boot

My old colleague Steve Smith would have been happy with his Daily Record splash on Thursday

Smithy, aka Big Sheep(he's 6ft plus and from Aberdeen, original or what?)revealed how Lothian and Borders traffic cops cocked up big time when they found missing nurse Magdeline Makola who had been missing for 11 days.

Traffic officers from the Edinburgh force were dispatched to Airdrie where they discovered the woman tied up in the boot of a Vauxhall Astra.
But, according to Smithy's sources, the cops would not let paramedics treat the clearly distressed victim until CID arrived on the scene. It's hard to believe but the poor woman was left lying in the boot for some 20 more minutes until a DS with some common sense turned up and summoned the medics before she was whisked to hospital.

The story was bad enough for the Edinburgh force and no doubt their colleagues in Strathclyde, where the car and victim was discovered, were pissing themselves at the sheer incompetence of their east coast neighbours.

But I was curious as to why there was no comment from L and B or defence of their officers included in the story.

The Daily Record are more meticulous than most newspapers when it comes to bottoming out a story so I knew is was not a case of sloppy journalism, so why no input from the cops on such a serious matter?

It turns out the Record, like others in the media, no longer believe a word they are told by the Fettes press office, so they simply didn't bother contacting them.

It's a sad state of affairs but not entirely surprising. In the past year this media office, under the guidance of Dep Chief Constable Tom Halpin, has been transformed from one of the most able and respected in Scotland to a second rate operation which is tolerated rather than respected by the press.

The following day, the Fettes amateurs issued a statement to the media trying to play down the story but which added nothing, and in fact only underlined that the Record's tale was on the money.

The statement read: "Following the article on the front page of today's Daily Record, Lothian and Borders Police is issuing the following response:
A police spokeswoman said: "Lothian and Borders Police can confirm that Road Policing Officers discovered a woman in a vehicle in Meadowside Place, Airdrie on Boxing Day (December 26 2008). In this instance, the primary issue was the victim's care, not protection of a potential crime scene. Due to the level of her discomfort, it was considered absolutely essential that the attending paramedic and ambulance crew determined whether she was fit to be moved. Her health was the immediate priority."

Naturally, the rest of the media ignored this statement and I am sure the Record would have too if they did not have a follow up story on Magdeline's father "demanding answers on cop ordeal" and bunged in a few pars at the foot of Kevan Christie's story.

This £250,000 a year press office - they really earn their money, don't they?