Lord Advocate appoints new Campbeltown Procurator Fiscal

33 year-old Laura McPherson is the new District Procurator Fiscal for Campbeltown and Dumbarton, appointed by Eilish Angiolini QC, Scotland’s Lord Advocate.

Since joining the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service 11 years ago, Laura McPherson has become an experienced and valued member of the prosecution service. She has been Procurator Fiscal for Greenock and Rothesay and is also an advocacy trainer.

She was appointed to the post of Procurator Fiscal Depute in Kilmarnock in August 2000 where she was based for four years, including a one year secondment in 2002 to the Procurator Fiscal’s Office in Hamilton. There she worked as a key member of the COPFS team responsible for the investigation and prosecution of Transco following the Larkhall Gas explosion in 1999.

Miss McPherson was promoted to the post of Principal Procurator Fiscal Depute at Ayr in November 2004 and in August 2007 she returned to work in the Crown Office in Edinburgh as part of the COPFS Communications team. She was then promoted to the post of District Procurator Fiscal for Greenock and Rothesay in October 2008.

She came first to Campbeltown and Dumbarton on temporary promotion to the post of Interim District Procurator Fiscal in March this year, following David Spiers’ retirement from the post.

The Dumbarton and Campbeltown Procurator Fiscal Offices deals with approximately 10,000 cases a year. Miss McPherson will have management responsibility for the prosecution of crime across a wide geographic jurisdiction corresponding with the boundaries of ‘L’ Division of Strathclyde Police. This incorporates the Sheriff Court Districts of Dumbarton, Oban, Dunoon and Campbeltown.

Eilish Angiolini said: ‘Laura McPherson has the drive, determination and enthusiasm to build on the effective relationships with our criminal justice partners in the area and will assist us in delivering justice and bringing benefits to local communities’.

Laura McPherson said: ‘I am very pleased to have been appointed to this challenging post and am looking forward to leading the strong, dedicated team of prosecution staff serving the people of Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute. We as prosecutors act in the public interest at all times, so getting to know and understand the local communities here and gaining their confidence will be high on my agenda.

‘I look forward to working closely with Strathclyde Police, the Scottish Court Service and all the other criminal justice agencies in the area, to ensure that myself and my team consistently deliver a first class prosecution service, dealing swiftly, efficiently and effectively with the perpetrators of crime, and making our towns and villages better and safer places in which to live’.