SCOTTISH SHERIFF BECOMES APPEALS JUDGE IN WORLD’S MOST REMOTE COURT - WITHOUT LEAVING DUNDEE ^∧

By David Leask, Herald Scotland, 9^th July 2015{3}

The law has always had a long arm.

But never quite as long as 5,000 miles. Until now.

A Scottish sheriff has been appointed to serve as an appeal court justice for the tiny and remote Atlantic islands of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. And Dundee-based Lorna Drummond QC may be able to serve her duties without actually visiting the volcanic outposts.

The sheriff - who spends most of her days laying down the law to benefit cheats and drunken louts in and around Perthshire, Fife and Angus - has unparalleled expertise in the law of the two islands.

She was, after all, once the only lawyer on Saint Helena, where the courts are run by lay magistrates. Ms Drummond, along with three English judges, will be responsible for reviewing their decisions but is not expected to need to journey to the islands.

The island was once effectively the world’s most isolated jail, the place where Britain exiled its enemies, such as Napoleon Bonaparte and later the rebel Zulus and Boers of South Africa.

Now peaceful Saint Helena, the tiny UK outpost in the South Atlantic, has the world’s smallest prison and barely any recorded crime, despite contradictory allegations of a culture of mass sex abuse of young girls.

The island, 2,500 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, is getting its first airport next year but is currently only reachable by a gruelling sea journey.

Still ruled by Britain, Saint Helena and its two sister territories, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha have just a few thousand citizens.

Ms Drummond said: “To date the court of appeal has dealt with only a very few cases. The papers are generally reviewed in the UK and travel to St Helena will not usually be necessary although it is still a possibility. The few cases there are will no doubt provide a contrast with my cases in Dundee.”

Ms Drummond has been a solicitor and an advocate, parliamentary counsel in London and the crown counsel in Saint Helena, where she advised the island’s government on both civil and criminal court matters.

Saint Helena no longer has the death penalty. A decade ago Scottish advocate Edgar Prais QC was instructed to defend a teenager accused of murder following a bar brawl, and he flew from England to Ascension Island, then took the mail ship for the two-day journey to St Helena - staying at the house where Napoleon spent his last years in exile.