Sunday Mail News Special: COPS FRAME SHAME; Secret Police Report Slams Murder Squad Officers Who Tried to Fit Up 12-Year-Old for the Death of His Brother

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Byline: By RUSSELL FINDLAY

A SENIOR police officer has claimed detectives faked diaries and planted evidence in a bid to frame a 12-year-old for the murder of his older brother.

A secret police report released last week brands the murder squad who investigated the death of 14-year-old Lawrence Haggart criminal and incompetent.

The report by James Mackay, the then assistant chief constable of Tayside Police, shows officers became so obsessed with nailing Lawrence's young brother Dennis for the crime that they ignored the true killer - serial paedophile Brian Beattie.

Lawrence was battered in his own home as he lay sleeping on the sofa and then set on fire by Beattie.

The report says detectives found a hammer and petrol in Beattie's van - but accepted his alibi that he had been out cruising for gay sex in Edinburgh.

The Mackay report reveals how police# Faked entries in an official diary of the murder inquiry at a later date.

# Failed to carry out basic searches of paedophile killer Brian Beattie's criminal record.

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