Lawyers for David Whitehouse, who was arrested and spent time in jail after becoming embroiled in a botched prosecution, said there was “every possibility” of a public inquiry into the Crown and Police Scotland.

Lord Tyre in the Outer House was told he needed the permission of a judge to pass to any future investigation the information he had obtained during the civil case.

Dean of Faculty, Roddy Dunlop QC, counsel for Mr Whitehouse, appeared alongside Gerry Moynihan QC for the Crown. Mr Dunlop said his client thought he could highlight deficiencies with the investigation.

He told said it was “unimaginable in modern-day Scotland that we could have a prosecution that was both without probable cause and malicious and yet this is exactly what we have here. Mr Whitehouse frankly wants to know why that happened”.

He added: “If there is an inquiry, Mr Whitehouse wants to participate fully in that. If there’s not, in any event Mr Whitehouse wants the ability to bring his concerns to the appropriate authorities by way of complaint and demand for investigation into how on earth this happened and who is responsible for it.

“In order that he may do that he wants to be able to use the documents he has had sight of and what he doesn’t want to do is find himself in contempt of court in so doing.”

Mr Moynihan told the court that the Lord Advocate was committed to a proper investigation of any claims of wrongdoing yet that Mr Whitehouse’s legal claim had been settled on the basis he accepted there was no criminality on the part of prosecutors.

Mr Moynihan added: “I had understood from [Mr Dunlop] that there was to be no discussion today of any of the merits of this and I’m somewhat disappointed that the Dean of Faculty has seen fit to repeat the coverage in the media and to refer to that.”