Robert has just returned from his latest ‘interim diet’ at Stonehaven and seems at first blast to be pleased with his new legal team “although it’s impossible to know what’s really going on in the background in Scotland, as ever”, as he now cautiously puts it.

Whilst sojourning in Aberdeenshire, a delight officially debarred him (mysteriously waived on no less than 15+ occasions), he took the opportunity to call in at Stonehaven police station, to lodge a formal complaint about “a likely conspiracy to pervert the course of justice involving the Crown, [his previous Counsel] Frances McMenamin QC and the Scottish Sun, as well as a prima facie case of breaching the terms of the Data Protection Act”.

“Of course, it was all too much for the poor woman officer on duty [Vicky Henderson] but at least I`ve made a start. I have copied in the court and Sheriff-Principal Bowen, who, despite what he said in court [in November], is now officiating at my trial [in January], which sounds suspicious to me, although today he was far more pleasant towards my team and less towards the Crown”.

The services of the Procurator Fiscal for Edinburgh, Stephen McGowan as Prosecutor have also been retained by the Sheriff, who once again chose to overlook the issue of his possibly needing to be called as witness in the case.

Thus the stage is set, with dramatis personae more or less quo ante, for the resumption of what have already proved to be some very interesting proceedings, by any legal, psycho-sociological or political measure, at Stonehaven Sheriff Court, Monday 16th January 2012.

See Robert’s blog for a fuller report