Iain Livingstone

Sir Iain Livingstone   (solicitor, police officer)
Born	Iain Thomas Livingstone 6 October 1966
Alma mater	University of Aberdeen
Chief Constable of Police Scotland In office 27 August 2018 - Present

Sir Iain Livingstone is a Scottish police officer who is currently Chief Constable of Police Scotland. He was named as the next Chief Constable on 15 August 2018 and took up office formally on 27 August 2018.

On 23 February 2023, the BBC announced that Sir Iain Livingstone would be retiring as Chief Constable of Police Scotland in the Summer of 2023.

Early life

Iain Livingstone graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1988 with a first class Bachelor of Laws degree. During his time as a student at Aberdeen he played association football as a forward for Raith Rovers and Montrose. He also attended the University of Strathclyde before beginning a career as a solicitor.

Police career

Iain Livingstone joined Lothian and Borders Police in 1992, rising swiftly through the ranks and eventually becoming head of that force's CID branch and Assistant Chief Constable for Crime. He graduated with a master's degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, where he studied from 1998 as a Fulbright scholar; he also served secondments as a special investigator with the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, was part of Lord Bonomy's review of corroboration for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, and has sat on the Scottish Sentencing Council.

When Lothian & Borders was amalgamated into the new Police Scotland force in 2013, Livingstone was named Deputy Chief Constable for Crime and operations. After being overlooked for the Chief Constable job when Phil Gormley was appointed as the successor to Stephen House in late 2015, he initially remained part of the force executive but in summer 2017 announced his intention to retire. He then accepted a request to reconsider his decision after several allegations of misconduct were made against Chief Constable Gormley and the latter was placed on special leave; by September 2017 Livingstone was leading the force on an interim basis. When Gormley resigned in February 2018 to contest the allegations, Livingstone became the frontrunner to succeed him formally. The role as Chief Constable from 27 August 2018 carries a four-year term and an annual salary of £216,000.

Staying in Scotland

When Dame Cressida Dick resigned as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in February 2022, Scotland's Chief Constable Iain Livingstone ruled himself out of applying for the top job at The Met. Livingstone had impressed Home Secretary Priti Patel with the way he tackled public order at COP26 in Glasgow, according to a report in The Times.

Murdered in the UK

On 7 December 2022, Lockerbie campaigner Patrick Haseldine wrote this letter:

Sir Iain Livingstone,

Chief Constable of Police Scotland,

2 Clyde Gateway,

French Street,

Glasgow G40 4EH

Dear Sir Iain,

BERNT CARLSSON: MURDERED IN THE UK

Thirty three years ago today, The Guardian published this letter from me:

Patrick Haseldine's letter to The Guardian of December 7, 1989

"Finger of suspicion"

"Exactly one year ago, you published my letter suggesting that Mrs Thatcher might have a blind spot as far as South African 'terrorism' is concerned.

"Fourteen days after publication, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky upon Lockerbie. Of the 270 victims, the most prominent person was the Swede Mr Bernt Carlsson – UN Commissioner for Namibia – whose obituary appeared on page 29 of your December 23, 1988 edition.

"I cannot be the only puzzled observer of this tragedy to wonder why police attention did not immediately focus on a South African connection. The question to be put (probably to Mrs Thatcher) is: given the South African proclivity to using the diplomatic bag for conveying explosives and the likelihood that the bomb was loaded aboard the aircraft at Heathrow (vide David Pallister, The Guardian, November 9, 1989) why has it taken so long for the finger of suspicion to point towards South Africa?

"Were police inquiries into Lockerbie subject to any political guidance or imperatives?"

Scotland Yard inquiry

Bernt Carlsson, the prime target on Pan Am Flight 103

On 28 May 2015, I asked Sir Bernard (now Lord Hogan-Howe) to open a Scotland Yard inquiry into the targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103 (attachment 1).

In June 2018, I created a petition inviting Cressida Dick to open a murder inquiry into the case of Bernt Carlsson (attachment 2).

On 21 November 2022, I repeated the request to Sir Mark Rowley for a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry (attachment 3).

Sir Mark Rowley's office replied on 5 December 2022:

Dear Mr Haseldine,

Thank you for getting in touch with the Commissioner.

I have done some enquiries around this matter and I can confirm that primacy of any investigation remains with Police Scotland in this matter and therefore any enquiries in relation to this matter or request for any action to be taken in light of that should be sent to them directly.

Kind regards,

Adam Abdul-Hamid, Inspector, Staff Officer to the Commissioner

Address New Scotland Yard, Victoria Embankment, London, SW1A 2JL

Police Scotland inquiry

Accordingly, Sir Iain, could you now please

• Open a Police Scotland inquiry into the targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103; or,
• Authorise the Metropolitan Police Service to launch a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry.

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Haseldine

PS. A copy of this letter goes to Sir Mark Rowley, to South African Judge Christopher Nicholson and to Mindhouse Productions which, on 7 November 2022, was reported to have been commissioned by Sky to make a three-part documentary on the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 (attachment 4).

The letter was delivered to Police Scotland headquarters on Thursday 8 December 2022 at 12:32pm.

Kidnapping of Abu Ajila Masoud

On 13 December 2022, Police Scotland responded:

Dear Mr Haseldine,

I write in response to your letter dated 7 December 2022. Police Scotland have never ceased the investigation into the terrorist attack on Pan Am 103 over the town of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 and continue to investigate this under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Two individuals were the subject of a trial that began in 2000 and in 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of the attack and murder of 270 people. There have been 2 completed appeals to this conviction, the most recent being rejected at the Court Of Criminal Appeal in 2021.

You will also be aware of recent media reporting that another Libyan male has been extradited to the USA and charged with his role in this horrific attack.

I can confirm that Police Scotland will continue to work closely on this investigation with our American law enforcement colleagues.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Houston

Detective Chief Superintendent

Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism

Brent Wilson Carlsson

On 9 January 2023, I again wrote to:

Sir Iain Livingstone

Chief Constable of Police Scotland

2 Clyde Gateway

French Street,

Glasgow G40 4EH

Dear Sir Iain,

I am grateful to DCS Stuart Houston for his response dated 13 December 2022 (received 7 January 2023) to my letter of 7 December 2022.

Unless I am mistaken, DCS Houston is saying it requires a direction from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to allow Police Scotland to open a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry. In which case, would COPFS approval be needed before Police Scotland can authorise the Metropolitan Police Service to launch a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry, I wonder?

Please clarify the situation or let me have COPFS email contact details so that I can pursue the matter.

A week ago, I made a surprise discovery re-reading the report of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism which was established in 1989 "to investigate the events surrounding the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103". The PCAST report was presented to President George Bush Sr on 15 May 1990.

The PCAST report lists the 270 victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded on 21 December 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

At page 132 of the PCAST report, the name of the highest profile victim is misspelled as "Carlsson, Brent Wilson, 50, New York, New York, Swedish".

Bernt Wilmar Carlsson was Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and UN Commissioner for Namibia from July 1987 until he died on Pan Am Flight 103.

Bernt Carlsson was on his way to New York to attend the signing ceremony on 22 December 1988 at United Nations headquarters of the New York Accords granting independence to Namibia, which had been illegally occupied by apartheid [[South Africa] in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 435.

Following the UN Commissioner's death at Lockerbie, South African foreign minister Pik Botha went ahead and signed the Tripartite Accord. :However, instead of handing control of Namibia to the United Nations, Pik Botha put the apartheid regime's Administrator-General, Louis Pienaar, in charge.

No investigation by the Scottish Police, the CIA, the FBI or the United Nations has ever been conducted into the evident targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103, despite the branding of apartheid South Africa as a "terrorist state" by Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee in the 1988 US presidential election campaign.

Now, Assistant Director Oliver "Buck" Revell was in charge of FBI investigative programs and operations at the time of the Pan Am 103 terrorist act and personally oversaw the investigation until April of 1991, when Special Agent Richard Marquise took charge.

Buck Revell was Adviser to the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism, and it is my contention that he deliberately misspelled Brent Wilson Carlsson's name to pervert the course of Lockerbie justice.

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Haseldine

FBI FD402 report

Sir Iain Livingstone

Chief Constable of Police Scotland

PO Box 2460

Glasgow G40 9BA

16 January 2023

Dear Sir Iain,

I must thank DCS Stuart Houston for his letter dated 11 January 2023 (received 14 January 2023) in response to the email and confirmatory letter that I sent to you on 9 January 2023.

DCS Houston writes:

"I can only reiterate that Police Scotland continue to investigate the terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 in which Bernt Carlsson tragically lost his life. As in all such criminal inquiries in Scotland, Police Scotland investigate under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Due to this flight being operated by an American airline and given that the majority of passengers were of US origin this has always been a joint investigation with colleagues from US law enforcement."

The superficial nature of that Scottish Police/US law enforcement joint investigation has been exposed in "The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale" by Detective Constable John Crawford (published on 13 August 2002).

On working with his FBI colleagues, DC Crawford has this to say (pages 79/89): https://wikispooks.com/wiki/John_Crawford#Thereby_Hangs_A_Tale

On a number of previous occasions, I have sought unsuccessfully to obtain a copy of the FBI's FD402 report on Bernt Carlsson.

George Burgess (Deputy Director of the Scottish Justice Directorate) said on 11 February 2010 that I should contact Dumfries & Galloway Police or the Crown Office.

And on 8 November 2013, I emailed Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Henderson to request an extract of the 'first fifteen' report (dealing specifically with interline passenger Bernt Carlsson) but received no reply.

I should be grateful, Sir Iain, if you would now provide me with an extract of DC Crawford's 'first fifteen' report, as well as a copy of the FBI's FD402 report relating to UN Commissioner Carlsson. From the latter, I shall be very interested to see whether former FBI Assistant Director Buck Revell's misspelling of Carlsson's forenames (Brent Wilson) is reflected in that report.

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Haseldine

Closing down discussion

On 31 January 2023, Police Scotland sent the following letter in reply:

Dear Mr Haseldine,

I write in response to your email dated 16th January 2023.

The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 is the subject of a live prosecution and remains an ongoing criminal investigation in Scotland and the USA. On that basis it is not possible to release any evidential material in the case or to discuss the matter further.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Houston

Detective Chief Superintendent

Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism

Ian Bell and Kenneth Roy

Sir Iain Livingstone

Chief Constable of Police Scotland

PO Box 2460

Glasgow G40 9BA

3 February 2023

Dear Sir Iain,

Thank you for DCS Houston's letter of 31 January 2023.

Yesterday marked twelve years since two outstanding Scottish journalists (both now sadly deceased) published landmark articles dealing with different aspects of the Lockerbie bombing.

On 2 February 2011, Ian Bell wrote an article entitled "So many questions still unanswered on Megrahi" in The Herald.

On the same day, the Scottish Review published Kenneth Roy's article entitled "The Megrahi Scandal".

I have provided links to those articles, and should be grateful if you would read and circulate them within Police Scotland where the Lockerbie investigation is currently proceeding.

You may also wish to send the articles to your US counterparts and to Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC.

I shall contact you shortly to determine how best a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry can be achieved.

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Haseldine

Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies

[[Display born on::6 October 1966| ]]  

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103	Letter	17 February 2023	Patrick Haseldine	Ian Ferguson: "In the early stages of the Lockerbie investigation, Bernt Carlsson's Presikhaaf suitcase was seen as the more likely bomb case. Police sources at the time said that this case was cleared of being the suspect case on November 23rd 1989."

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 6 December 2022.
Wikipedia is not affiliated with Wikispooks.   Original page source here