THE procurator-fiscal's office at the centre of a row over the handling of two paedophile prosecutions is to lose its independence.
The Lord Advocate, Lord Hardie, announced yesterday that with immediate effect, the management of the procurator-fiscal's office at Alloa would be combined with that of Stirling.
The move follows the retiral last month of Alloa fiscal Ian Douglas, 60, after complaints from Ochils MP Martin O'Neill, a sheriff's criticism, and police concerns.
The change means that Mr Cameron Ritchie, procurator-fiscal at the larger Stirling office for nearly two years, will take charge of both offices from Monday.
A spokesman for the Lord Advocate's office said that services to the public at Alloa would continue to be delivered locally, and there would be no job losses.
A senior depute fiscal from the Stirling office will be based at Alloa, working with the current support staff. Mr Ritchie will prosecute in both courts.
A spokesman for the Crown Office said Mr Douglas had made a ''personal choice'' not to take the option open to fiscals and continue in office until he was 61. His departure followed pressure for an inquiry into his running of the Alloa office.
Mr O'Neill called for a high-level review in March, after the prosecution of a paedophile on a summary complaint drew criticism from the local sheriff.
Sheriff William Reid complained that he had only been able to jail sex offender Walter Hoggan, 59, for three months because of the Crown's failure to prosecute him on indictment.
Hoggan had been convicted of the abuse of an 11-year-old girl. .
In an earlier paedophile case, Sheriff Reid sentenced 49-year-old David Fyfe, from Fishcross near Alloa, to three years' probation after he admitted luring two girls, aged six and eight, into a secluded area and filming up their skirts with a video camera.
The sheriff said the only reason he was sentencing Fyfe to probation rather than jail was because of the Crown's failure to prosecute him on indictment.
It is understood both cases were also raised with the Lord Advocate by the Central Scotland Chief Constable William Wilson, who also expressed concern about the failure of the fiscal's office in Alloa to oppose a large number of bail applications.
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