Senior officers have known for at least 18 years that Caithness detectives ignored an order to treat a violent death as a murder probe.
The family of Kevin Mcleod, who died in the harbour at Wick in February 1997, have welcomed a review being carried out by Merseyside Police but believe they were lied to for years by Scottish cops.
They are furious that, in 2002, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary discovered the failing and put it before the Northern Constabulary, yet nothing was done.
The family have tried to find out what was done when the failing emerged and asked the Crown Office when it knew about it but has had few answers.
Kevin’s dad Hugh said: “The procurator fiscal instructed the police to treat Kevin’s death as a murder and it failed to do so. Why?
“We’ve had meetings with Crown officials asking when they knew and what they did about it but they avoid the questions.”
In 2007, the joint board of Northern Constabulary said: “Aspects of the investigation into Kevin’s death could have been handled better.”
Kevin’s uncle, Allan Mcleod, said the family had endured “one lie after another” to cover up failures, adding: “The fiscal who issued the instruction to Northern told us he’d done so at an early stage.”
It was only in December 2017 that Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, then the force number two, told them an instruction was “given by the fiscal to treat Kevin’s death as a murder”.
The post-mortem found Kevin had internal injuries consistent with a severe beating. But cops said these could have been the result of running into a bollard.
Allan said: “The Crown and police have blood on their hands. We want his killer brought to justice but also people who failed him brought to account.”
Assistant Chief Constable Duncan Sloan and the Crown Office said that while Northern Constabulary’s investigation was being reviewed it would be inappropriate to comment.
