"a wee break from Canadian election news"
PING!
Posted on 01/27/2006 8:03:35 PM PST by GMMAC
Police target rogue lawyers
after bid to murder Law Society official
The Scotsman
news.scotsman.com
Thu 26 Jan 2006
MICHAEL HOWIE
POLICE investigating the attempted murder of a senior legal official have drawn up a list of aggrieved clients and rogue lawyers amid a growing belief that his work holds the key to the vicious knife attack.
Leslie Cumming, 53, the chief accountant with the Law Society of Scotland, was repeatedly stabbed outside his Edinburgh home at around 5pm on Monday.
The assailant, who was wearing a black balaclava, pounced on Mr Cumming as he locked his garage door in a secluded lane in Murrayfield after returning from work.
It is thought the attacker had been lying in wait behind a tree before he rushed towards Mr Cumming, plunging a knife into his back, then stabbing and slashing him in the face and chest.
Mr Cumming is secretary of the Law Society's Guarantee Fund, which investigates allegations of theft by lawyers from aggrieved clients. His team has the power to check the books of more than 1,000 legal firms in Scotland and then make payments to clients if they discover irregularities.
He also carries out checks on firms to ensure they are not involved in money laundering from drugs, prostitution or protection rackets, and can report lawyers for prosecution.
Yesterday The Scotsman revealed that Mr Cumming has regularly received hate mail relating to his job.
As Mr Cumming continued his recovery yesterday, Detective Inspector Keith Hardie, who is heading the investigation into the attack, said it was becoming increasingly apparent that he had been singled out by his assailant.
He revealed they were looking for a man seen acting suspiciously outside the victim's house on the morning of the attack.
"Two schoolgirls spotted a man acting suspiciously in the lane at about 8.10am - around the time Mr Cumming would have been leaving for work. Their account appears to fit the description we already have of the man. The guy was wearing a hooded top and possibly had something else on his head.
"We suspect it was the same man who carried out the attack, but we cannot be 100 per cent sure. It does not appear to have been a random assault."
DI Hardie said police were in regular contact with the law society, with whom Mr Cumming has worked for 26 years. "That is one of our significant lines of inquiry. We are looking at the inquiries Mr Cumming has been carrying out, both recently and historically."
He said the list would include lawyers and members of the public.
DI Hardie said no weapon had been recovered and the search would be expanded along the attacker's possible escape routes.
Detectives yesterday interviewed Mr Cumming for the first time at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where he was said to be improving.
Police, who spent most of the day talking to the victim, said they hoped he would provide them with "a clearer picture of the chain of events during the frenzied assault".
Forensic officers yesterday took fingerprints from Mr Cumming's garage. Swabs were taken of blood spattered on a gate leading to his front door and have been taken away for analysis.
Residents in the affluent neighbourhood remained in a state of disbelief as detectives intensified their efforts to track down the knifeman, carrying out door-to-door inquiries and fingertip searches of the area surrounding the scene of the attack.
David Wishart, 63, a retired civil servant, said: "We are all very distressed for Mr and Mrs Cumming, and that such a thing could happen in this quiet area."
"a wee break from Canadian election news"
PING!
Arlen "Scotish Law" Specter. HA! :)
As the bookkeeper for a law firm I find this story most distressing. I hope this man will recover and his attacker will be apprhended.
The article doesn't say how old the "schoolgirls" are, but things might have gone better if they'd have told someone about the suspicious man lurking about their neighborhood.
We've really got to ramp up the vigilence folks, just in general.
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