If you have difficulty accessing this, it is reported in the Scottish Law Reporter, the Scottish Daily Mail and the BBC. The current Scottish regime is notoriously hostile to freedom of speech and freedom of the press, especially with regard to issues related to paedophile crime.

Stuart MacFarlane, who formerly served as Procurator Fiscal Depute under Elish Angiolini, when she was Lord Advocate, has confessed to possessing 15,000 pornographic images of girls between 3 and 14 as well as ones including sadism and sex with animals.

Additionally, it is understood that several other members at Angiolini`s former office have been suspended on the grounds on suspicion that they shared the images with MacFarlane.

MacFarlane was initially arrested for a past sex offence in 2005, but the Crown Office decided it was "not in the public interest" to prosecute him. It has now turned out that he has been, in fact, a serial paedophile criminal all along.

The initial offence was being caught in a sexual act with a female prostitute in Glasgow. Two police officers, Sgt Stewart and PC McCormack gave chase to MacFarlane, who ran away with his trousers around his ankles and both officers were injured as MacFarlane attempted to evade arrest. One might reasonably have expected a custodial sentence, but this was not to be, thanks to the intervention of Angiolini`s office, "in the public interest", naturally.

MacFarlane was assisted further by the services of the late Paul McBride QC.

Readers of this blog may recall that it was Mr McBride who helped sex offender Douglas Haggarty, current Technical Head of the Scottish Legal Aid Board, to avoid prison  after he was arrested for committing a sexual act with a boy in the gents` toilets in a Glasgow city centre store.

Such is the calibre of some of the individuals in positions of responsibility within the Scottish justice system. You could hardly make it up.

Paul McBride was somewhat mysteriously found dead in a hotel room in Pakistan last year, aged just 48.

It is now almost a year since I was released from jail. I still remember with appreciation the support I received from the officers and governors there and especially, the tremendous backing that was given to me by my fellow prisoners throughout the incarceration. It is also impossible for me to forget all the kindnesses and messages I received from so many people around the world, shocked by the Scottish authorities` contemptuous and hostile attitude towards disabled rape victim Hollie Greig and those who had the decency and courage to stand up for her.

I must also thank those wonderful people who publicly called for my release in various cities and the valiant Scots who walked the streets of Aberdeen and demonstrated on a number of occasions outside the prison. These are the true Scots, a credit to their fine country.

Scotland really is a wonderful nation, containing some of the most decent, brave and talented people you could find anywhere, but every country does have its unsavoury element and it seems that this small and unworthy minority has somehow reached the upper echelons of the Scottish system. Returning to my earlier comments, I have no hesitation in stating my view that in general, the Scots  locked up with me in prison were of superior character than many of those who actually run the country.

Since I left prison, of course, the Jimmy Savile and Hillsborough scandals have unravelled and people throughout Britain must be aware of the desperate and cynical measures adopted by the authorities to cover up criminal activity when it suits them to do so, including persecution of the victims themselves. Scotland is not alone in being riddled with corruption at a very high level.