The Lord Advocate:

It is difficult to be critical of what took place some 20 years ago. Some of the advances in forensic science and knowledge have been utterly unexpected developments that have taken us all by surprise. Had there been evidence such as we had in this case, the other four cases that were investigated as part of operation trinity would have had a much greater prospect of prosecution. That is not to say that such evidence will not be discovered. We know that, over the years, evidence has been lost. Some of it has deteriorated—it was buried under soil and contaminated—and, despite copious searches of Strathclyde Police's offices, some of the material cannot be located. It was only through the presence of mind of Lester Knibb, of Lothian and Borders Police, that the Crown was able to indict the case of Angus Sinclair. Lester Knibb is to be complimented on his presence of mind and foresight at the time. However, given that there have been some utterly unimaginable developments in this area, it would be unfortunate if we blamed officers for actions taken some years ago.