Alex Prentice
Alex Prentice KC is a leading Scottish lawyer.
He has held senior posts at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the body which normally carries out prosecutions in Scotland. He became an assistant Principal Advocate Depute in 2009, and then the Principal Advocate Depute. After the office restructured in 2011, he became the senior crown counsel.[1]
Prentice qualified as a solicitor in 1983 and as a Solicitor Advocate in 1994, and practised as a defence solicitor for 21 years. In 2004 he became the first Solicitor Advocate from outside the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to be appointed as an Advocate Depute. He was appointed as a Senior Advocate Depute in 2006 and became a QC in 2007.[2]
Prentice has prosecuted a number of significant cases including the shotgun murder at the "Marmion" public house in Edinburgh, the murder of Jolanta Bledaite, HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan, the Murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar, and HM Advocate v Salmond.[3] In 2012 he twice won a murder conviction without a body in the murder of Suzanne Pilley and the retrial in the murder of Arlene Fraser. Further to this, Prentice won an appeal lodged by Fraser in 2013. In June 2013, Channel 4 screened Nat Fraser's second trial in The Murder Trial, which heavily featured Prentice himself.[4]
References
- ^ "New senior prosecution team for High Court cases - Glasgow Solicitors Blog from the GLP". Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
- ^ McIndoe, Ross (12 March 2020). "Alex Salmond trial: who is Alex Prentice QC - the lawyer leading the former First Minister's prosecution". The Scotsman. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
- ^ "Alex Salmond accused of sexual assaults on 10 women". BBC News. 21 November 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
- ^ "The Murder Trial | Channel 4". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 13 September 2023.