Part-time sheriff John Halley removed from office

Mr Halley was appointed as junior counsel to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) in October 2015 but was dismissed in April 2019. He posted a series of social media posts about chair of the inquiry, Lady Smith, and brought a case against her in the Employment Tribunal in July 2019 alleging disability discrimination – but withdrew the claim in December, after which the proceedings were dismissed.

He had said in May 2019 that, from September 2016, he had suffered disability discrimination, harassment and victimisation by Lady Smith and said she was “a danger to cancer sufferers at work”. He later said she was a “serious danger to cancer sufferers”.

In 2023 he called Lady Smith “deranged”, a “monster” and a “bully”.

Mr Halley claimed that having raised an employment case he had the right to be protected from allegations of “misbehaviour” and claimed the communications did not constitute this.

The report said: “The communications referred to the chair of the inquiry as evil, corrupt, a monster, who had manufactured false criminal charges against him to get him arrested, and who was a bully who had treated him viciously, an abuser, a danger to cancer sufferers, evil and deranged, questioning whether she was a normal, compassionate, rational human being, and saying that she was a person who was guilty of the abuse of public funds.

“The tenor of the communications, and the language used, becomes progressively worse over time and it is not unreasonable to categorise it as a campaign of personal abuse addressed to the inquiry chair.”

It added: “We are satisfied that [Mr Halley] is unfit to hold office by reason of misbehaviour.”

A statement from the Scottish government said: “Given the gravity of the tribunal’s findings, the first minister accepted there are compelling reasons to remove part-time Sheriff Halley and has taken that decision.”