Sacked print ID expert's job fight.

A FINGERPRINT expert sacked over the Shirley McKie scandal yesterday launched a legal bid to get her job back.

Fiona McBride, 43, claims she was unfairly dismissed by the Scottish Criminal Records Office in May last year after almost 23 years' service.

McBride was one of four fingerprint officers who identified a print at a murder scene as former Strathclyde detective McKie's in 1997.

McKie was later tried and acquitted of perjury relating to the case.

She was awarded pounds 750,000 in compensation in 2006.

Three SCRO officers accepted redundancy in March last year.

But McBride, of Clydebank, near Glasgow, has now taken her case to an employment tribunal which is expected to last 10 days.

She is seeking reinstatement, re-engagement or compensation.

David Mulhern, of the Scottish Police Services Authority, told the tribunal in Glasgow that then justice minister Cathy Jamieson told him to produce a report on the fingerprint service in 2006.

He said the McKie case had a significant impact on the reliability of fingerprinting identification.

McKie denied being present at the Kilmarnock home of murder victim Marion Ross and said a fingerprint, identified there as hers, was not.

The tribunal continues.

CAPTION(S):

TRIBUNAL: Fiona McBride