The Sheriff Appeal Court has quashed a sheriff’s order allowing the recovery of telephone records from devices owned by a complainer in a summary complaint under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 after finding that it was unnecessary in the circumstances of the case.
Counsel for the Procurator Fiscal in Falkirk argued that the sheriff’s order was lacking in specification, not supported by adequate reasoning, and unnecessarily intrusive. The respondent, BM, argued that he no longer possessed the requested records on any of his own devices and the order was necessary to allow him to conduct his defence.