David Ross

Highland Correspondent

THE leader of the Skye bridge anti-tolls campaigners may be charged with perjury following a court case in Dingwall last Friday, but a sheriff directed the press not to report the development even though he had no legal authority to do so.

Portree councillor Drew Millar, who is the convener of the Skye and Kyle Against Tolls (Skat) campaign, was charged and found guilty of two charges of obstruction.

He was fined a total of #250 for the offences, which were committed on the bridge on November 1 last year.

Sheriff James Fraser had earlier ordered a reporter not to leave his courtroom, said nobody would be allowed to leave, and told three members of the media to stop taking notes after the verdict and sentence, as they could not publish what he was about to say. Sheriff Fraser then proceeded to invite the Crown to consider prosecuting Mr Millar for perjury.

He said that everybody in the courtroom was a potential witness in any perjury trial which might result, including himself. Once off the bench, he advised members of the press to take legal advice about what could be reported about the actual obstruction trial in which Mr Millar is alleged to have committed perjury.

The Herald subsequently took legal advice from Mr Peter Watson, president of the Society of Solicitor/Advocates.

He said: ''I am very surprised by reports of what the presiding sheriff has done in this case.

''Ordinarily, a sheriff has no power to stop any member of the press or public leaving the courtroom, no power to stop the press taking notes, and no power to prevent publication of an invitation to the Crown, made in open court, to consider a perjury prosecution.

''It has long been recognised the press has a vital public function in reporting what takes place in court. The power to prevent publication is accordingly very limited.''

After careful consideration, The Herald has decided to report the court proceedings in the interests of press freedom. It is understood that the BBC's legal advice is identical and it plans to broadcast a report in both Gaelic and English this morning.

Herald editor Harry Reid yesterday explained the paper's stance: ''This strikes at the heart of the freedom of the press, and if journalists are not willing to fight for that principle, then there would appear little point in us fighting for any other one.

''What can or cannot be reported in open court must be based on sound law and not shrieval whim. There can be no compromise on that. That is why we have taken the decision to publish.

''There are enough unanswered questions about the Skye bridge and The Herald has already called for a public inquiry, or some kind of independent scrutiny of the whole project. Events at Dingwall last Friday have further served to underline the need for such independent scrutiny.

''The idea of a sheriff, who apparently does not know the limits of his own powers, presiding over semi-secret trials, is of fundamental concern. The last thing we need is more secrecy.''

During the trial, Mr Millar gave evidence that on November 1 he had driven to the toll booth and offered to hand over a ticket if the the people collecting the tolls could show him documentary evidence that they were properly empowered in law to collect the tolls.

He said that he had offered to move his car forward through the toll barrier while this was sorted out and had been surprised that he was not allowed to do so. In earlier demonstrations campaigners had been allowed to move through.

He was asked by procurator-fiscal Alasdair Macdonald: ''Were you taken completely by surprise? Were you not aware of a change in policy of the company in respect on non-payment? ... You did not know on November 1 that there had been a policy in force since that July that bridge employees would not let people across?''

Mr Millar insisted that he had been surprised.

Later, defence witness Robbie the Pict agreed that the change in bridge policy had been in force since July 1997. He also said that Skat was an organisation which disseminated information to its membership.

However, when Mr Macdonald put it to him that Mr Millar therefore would have been fully aware of this change of policy, Robbie replied: ''I am not in a position to know whether Mr Millar knew or not. He is a councillor on the Highland Council and receives a great deal of of paperwork, so it might well be that he had not taken this in.''

In his summing up, however, Mr Macdonald put it to Sheriff Fraser that this had to be untrue. ''It was an untruth he backed into, but it was patently false.''