SCOTTISH court proceedings against a man accused of sexual assault had to be put on hold after Crown Office staff said they needed a translator to understand the accused’s evidence because of his strong “Geordie” accent.
Perth Sheriff Court was told that staff were unable to understand the words of accused Denis Boyd, 38, who now lives in Redgorton in Perthshire, and was originally from the north east of England, on a police interview tape.
Sheriff Gillian Wade agreed to schedule an extra day in the case. Boyd denies carrying out a sex attack on a woman in Victoria Street, Perth, on August 29, 2016. The trial is due to take place later this year.
Boyd’s defence agent, solicitor Nicky Brown, told the court that her client had taken part in a recorded interview with police and that a DVD had been produced for the court. However, staff had so far been unable to determine what was being said.
She added: “There is a difficulty with the transcript of his police interview. The difficulty is that the accused has a very, very strong Geordie accent and part of his response is missing.
“It is not just part of it, but substantial parts of it. I will need to go through it with him and put in the responses which are missing.”
The clerk of the court told Boyd that an extra court day was being scheduled “for the police interview to effectively be translated”.
Prosecutor John Malpass added: “That is the current position with the transcript. There are large tracts of the interview missing.”
In granting an extra day’s hearing, Sheriff Wade said she was not going to “rant and rave” at the delay.
She told the court: “I appreciate there has been a disclosure issue, but I am not going to rant and rave about it because that is not going to help.
“In the first instance the Crown have to make sure disclosure is made in time.
“There is clearly a problem with the DVD and both parties need to know what is said at the interview. The problem has been identified.”
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