Sister of murdered Aberdeen man secures meeting with Justice Secretary

Sandra Geddes, sister of Alan Geddes, has secured a meeting with Justice Secretary Keith Brown after campaigning for stricter rules regarding the release of prisoners.

Mr Geddes, 56, was murdered in Aberdeen in December 2019 by Stuart Quinn, who had been released from HMP Grampian less than 24 hours before.

Mr Quinn, who has since been sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of 18 years, was previous behind bars for a series of assaults after turning to alcohol and drugs following an attack overseas.

Former Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf had said he would meet with Ms Geddes, though he was soon made Health Secretary. Keith Brown, who took over from Mr Yousaf, never followed up.

However, Ms Geddes spoke to Douglas Lumsden, MSP for the North East Scotland region, who was able to secure a commitment from the cabinet minister.

"Another step forward"

Speaking to Northsound, Ms Geddes said there are "common sense steps" that can be taken to avoid something similar happening again.

"My brothers death could have been prevented if certain steps had been carried out correctly. And to me, these are common sense steps. And so these are the things that I need to get over to the government to make changes.

"He's not accountable to anybody, but he can become an extremely violent person.

"If it hadn't been my brother that night, that was kind enough to say, 'I'll give you a bed for the night', he would have been walking the street and someone else would have gotten murdered."

Ms Geddes has been working with MSP's across the country to get support in her campaign for change.

"Getting the meeting is just another step forward", she added.

"When I started this initially, it was Lewis McDonald that supported me. But obviously he retired when the government changed and I contacted Douglas (Lumsden), and without hesitation, he said he would help.

"I said right at the beginning that it's not it's not about parties here, it's about everybody working together.

"We need to make sure that the government are held responsible to make changes - and it's not about blame.

"It's about holding them accountable and saying, well, look, this is what happened. What can we do to change it and make it better so that it doesn't happen in the future?"

"Radical overhaul" required

After pushing Mr Brown to commit to a meeting, Mr Lumsden added: "A radical overhaul of the system is needed so rigorous assessments are made when deeming a criminal safe enough to be allowed back into our communites.

"It's now over two years since the murder of Alan Geddes and the family have still got plenty of questions. I'm glad that the cabinet secretary has agreed to meet with the family."

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