EXCLUSIVE: ‘All efforts will be made’ to find missing Orkney murder files

Every effort will be made to find missing evidence from an Orkney murder hunt, Scotland’s top lawyer has said.

The Lord Advocate was responding to revelations about the loss of material from the Mumutaz murder case.

Shamsuddin Mahmood was shot and killed by a masked gunman as he served diners at a Kirkwall restaurant on the evening of June 2, 1994.

It would take until 2008 before Black Watch sergeant Michael Ross was convicted for the crime. He was 15 years old at the time of the killing.

Ross, now 48, maintains his innocence. The Orcadian revealed last month that a new review had been launched into his conviction, after previous appeal efforts were refused.

The convicted murder told the newspaper that “several grounds” were submitted to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) by his campaign group.

Meanwhile, separate enquiries are being made into evidence going missing from the controversial case.

It was in February that Police Scotland told The Orcadian about the scale of lost files, following a Freedom of Information request.

The force told us that 59 documents and 12 exhibits — physical pieces of evidence — had been lost from the probe into the killing.

Earlier this month, after an intervention by two MSPs, the force confirmed that most of the material about the 30-year-old shooting has been found.

The hunt for the remaining eight lost items continues, Police Scotland has confirmed this week.

Lord Advocate Ruth Charteris KC has said it is “disappointing” the force accepted that 59 documents were missing.

Ms Charteris, who leads Scotland’s prosecution service, said that evidence is usually returned to the police for storage after a trial.

“The police generally discharge this duty to a high standard, and this is demonstrated in the number of successful prosecutions in recent years of ‘cold case murders’,” the Lord Advocate added.

“The continued availability of these productions and documents is essential for any such prosecution.”

She described that further searches are being made by Police Scotland to trace the remaining eight lost items from the Mumutaz murder probe.

Ms Charteris continued: “Nevertheless, the loss of any production is considered serious, and all efforts will be made to trace such.”

Changes in Police Scotland’s policy for handling evidence over the years have sometimes led to evidence being moved, she added.

The Lord Advocate said the handling and retention of evidence is “of major importance” to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

She continued: “I am assured that the homicide unit will ask the police to make further efforts to establish the movement of the productions in this case and to trace the outstanding items.”

The Lord Advocate’s comments come in a letter to Liam McArthur MSP. He was following up questions lodged in March by Jamie Halcro-Johnston, then a Highlands and Islands MSP.

Last month, Police Scotland told Mr McArthur that an internal review was being carried out on whether the force should report itself to the data protection watchdog over the handling of the files.

The handling of the evidence from the crime is just the latest twist in the controversial case, which garnered renewed interest in recent years.

Last year saw Amazon Prime air a feature-length documentary, The Orkney Assassin: Murder in the Isles. This was followed by a three-part series on BBC Scotland.