THE Shirley McKie fingerprinting case is to be made into a film by the producer of the historical movie Rob Roy.

Peter Broughan, the Glasgow-based film-maker, is currently casting the parts of Shirley, the former Strathclyde policewoman wrongly accused of leaving a fingerprint at the scene of a murder, and her father, Iain, who campaigned to clear her name.

Broughan, who also produced the The Flying Scotsman, the acclaimed 2006 biopic of Graeme Obree, the champion cyclist, has met with the McKies several times to discuss the script.

The film will recount how McKie's career as a successful police officer was cut short after an investigation into the murder of Marion Ross, a 51-year-old spinster from Kilmarnock.

Experts from the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO) claimed a print taken from the crime scene belonged to McKie who insisted she was never there.

Although she was prosecuted over the offence and found not guilty, McKie, 45, from Troon, was hounded out of her job. Her reputation was ruined and she was unable to work again due to severe stress.

In 2006, following a campaign mounted by McKie and her father to clear her name - and an independent police report which concluded the SCRO had attempted to cover up mistakes - she was awarded £750,000 in compensation.

“Peter Broughan is making [the movie],” said Iain McKie last week. “He's got a young scriptwriter working on it just now. We can't stop them, we can't stop anybody making a film so we've decided to co-operate.”

Earlier this month it was announced that Lord Justice Campbell is to head a new inquiry into the fingerprints affair and will take up the role in September. The move fulfils a nationalist manifesto commitment aimed at countering the decade-long “cloud of suspicion and uncertainty” hanging over the Scottish criminal justice system as a result of the controversy.

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