Murderer’s appeal over judicial bias thrown out

Alan Humphrey, 57, from Glasgow, claimed he had suffered a miscarriage of justice after he was found guilty of murdering his wife Angela in 2014. He claimed Lady Rae was biased in her closing remarks to the jury at the trial two years ago.

The Criminal Appeal Court in Edinburgh heard that Lady Rae favoured prosecutors’ claims over his defence when summing up at the conclusion of the trial.

However, the Lord Justice General, Lord Carloway criticised the process that permitted the case to be appealed, saying Lady Rae had acted correctly. Mr Humphrey fired his defence and presented his own appeal.

Lord Carloway wrote: “This had been a lengthy trial in which the trial judge decided she should provide a short summary of the evidence. She did that.

“The evidence was all in the context of the Crown case. However, the judge balanced that by outlining the salient points of criticism presented by the appellant.

“Once more the judge’s approach was faultless. The only concern is how leave to appeal came to be given upon such flimsy grounds. Their diaphanous quality was clearly, and correctly perceived by counsel in the course of the appeal process.

“It is unfortunate that it was missed at the stage of the sift. The appeal is refused.”

The appeal judges also said there was no evidence Mr Humphrey suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Lord Carloway wrote: “There is no substance in the complaints about this charge being unbalanced. Quite the contrary, this was a studied charge in which the trial judge was careful to deal with each and every aspect of the case and the evidence heard at trial.

“It is an exemplar for use in a murder case of this type where there is no defence evidence and the line taken by the accused is one of putting the Crown to its proof, rather than building a positive contrary case.

“On several occasions, the judge stressed the entitlement of an accused to say nothing and that no adverse inference could be drawn from that.”

Mr Humphrey murdered his wife by launching a brutal attack on her. He later boasted about it in a Glasgow pub.