Weekly roundup of Scots law in the headlines including rapist taxi driver licence row — Monday July 13

Your weekly roundup of Scots law in the headlines including a row over a Highland Council subcommittee decision to allow a convicted rapist to keep his taxi licence.

Four councillors quit after vote for rapist taxi driver to keep operator licence

Four councillors who voted to allow a rapist taxi driver to keep his operator's licence have quit Highland Council's licensing committee, reports the BBC.

David Brown, 50, was jailed for six years and nine months in May after attacking an 18-year-old female passenger in December 2023.

Last month, following a request from Brown's family, the committee's six male councillors voted to allow his operator's licence to continue, while its four female councillors voted against it.

After criticism of the decision, the chairman Sean Kennedy along with John Grafton, Duncan Macpherson and Willie MacKay have resigned from the committee.

• Four councillors quit after vote for rapist taxi driver to keep operator licence (BBC)

• SNP councillor 'suspended' over rapist taxi driver decision (STV)

• SNP councillor suspended over rapist taxi driver licence scandal (Scotsman)

• [£] SNP suspends Highland Council member amid taxi driver row (Herald)

• Councillor John Grafton insists he won’t resign council seat over taxi rapist license row despite LibDems expelling him from Highland Council group (Ross-shire Journal)

• LibDem Highland councillor expelled after backing taxi licence for rapist (The National)

Former Lord Chancellor Lord James Mackay of Clashfern dies aged 99

Former Lord Chancellor Lord James Mackay of Clashfern has died aged 99, writes STV.

Lord Mackay, who was born in Edinburgh in 1927, was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1965 and served as Dean of Faculty of Advocates, the leader of the Scots bar, from 1976 to 1979.

• Former Lord Chancellor Lord James Mackay of Clashfern dies aged 99 (STV)

• Former Conservative minister Lord Mackay dies aged 99 (BBC)

• [£] Lord Mackay of Clashfern obituary: lord chancellor (Times)

• [£] Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord Chancellor whose sweeping reforms upset the legal establishment (Telegraph)

• Lord Mackay of Clashfern KT (Joshua Rozenberg)

And in other news

Legal headlines from across the UK and beyond:

• Restore Britain leader describes Dunblane tragedy as 'one murder' (BBC)

• 'Deeply insulting': MP calls Dunblane massacre 'one murder' on Joe Rogan podcast (STV)

• Ruth Ellis, last woman hanged in UK, granted posthumous conditional pardon (Guardian)

• Opinion: Ruth Ellis’s pardon will comfort her family, but the system still lets down abused women like her (Guardian)

• Woman accused of driving car at sister denies attempted murder charge (BBC)

• Football banning orders strengthened in pitch invasion and pyro crackdown (BBC)

• Police issue hate crime warning after hundreds gather in Glasgow street (BBC)

• Pair murdered man on his doorstep in 'brutal, pre-meditated' stabbing (BBC)

• Next day delivery: Company directors ran £1.5m drug 'distribution centre' (STV)

• Virgin Media fined record £28m for stopping millions of customers from switching (STV)

• Dumbarton incident saw man shout through letterbox of ex (Dumbarton Reporter)

• Marine Le Pen ‘wants to talk politics’, but can she drown out the legal noise? (Guardian)

• [£] Stuntmen sue for £200,000 over clip in Elton John’s farewell tour (Times)

• [£] Laura Noble: I’m so grateful to the charity that gave me a chance (Times)

• [£] Rape and sexual offences listings prioritised to cut delays (Times)

• [£] Barristers’ clerks embrace technology in evolving roles (Times)