AN IMAGE of leading advocate Donald Findlay in the cell that held serial killer Peter Manuel is among the highlights of a remarkable collection of candid pictures featuring Scottish advocates in their professional habitat.
The compilation has been captured by Victoria Young, advocate, a prominent lawyer who has worked in a series of high-profile trials, including cases against serial killer Peter Tobin, Luke Mitchell – convicted of Jodi Jones’s murder in 2003 – and “limbs in the loch” killer William Beggs.
Ms Young doubles as a professional photographer and was inspired to shed new light on key figures from the High Court in Glasgow.
“The lawyers’ room at the court was moving from a lovely light-filled room room to a dark basement, and we thought it would be good to have some shots to put on the walls of personal images of people very much in the public eye,” Ms Young said.
But public perceptions are often far from accurate, she said, describing Donald Findlay, advocate, as “a very shy individual”.
Photography is normally banned in court, and advocates can avoid being pictured in their wigs and gowns, so she had to secure special permission to snap on the premises.
Mr Findlay and Gordon Jackson, advocate, illustrated together, are the “father figures of the criminal bar, senior, grumpy and always batting some legal issue back and forth, Gordon always with his phone and Donald his pipe”, she said.
Mr Findlay is appropriately photographed in the cells beneath the court. She said: “Donald Findlay is hugely interested in the Manuel story.
“But he is known to be so committed to the client that even after a difficult verdict he will go down and sit with them and ruminate on the verdict. Not everyone does that.
“The job means a lot to everyone and is a big part of their personality.”
Despite becoming hooked on photography after getting a digital SLR camera to take on a Kenyan safari holiday, and making a business out of it, Ms Young says she’s not giving up the day job of court business and murder trials.
“It’s too much fun,” she added.
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