A former top Scottish National Party official who was falsely accused of sexually abusing his daughter has lost a major damages claim. Jim Fairlie was suing an NHS healthcare trust for £250,000. He said his daughter Katrina underwent a discredited therapy which produced false memories of violence. However, Lord Kingarth was not satisfied that Perth and Kinross Healthcare NHS Trust owed a duty of care to Mr Fairlie. He ruled that he would dismiss the action “as a matter of law”. In his written judgement, Lord Kingarth further added that it would be “wrong…to allow the pursuer to advance what is essentially a claim for defamation in the guise of a claim for damages for losses caused by negligence”. Katrina kept a diary of the false claims during treatment It was while undergoing recovered memory therapy in a psychiatric hospital in Perth that Katrina made a series of devastating allegations of sexual abuse by her father. She later said those claims were completely untrue and a police investigation found there was no evidence of abuse. The family were reunited but Mr Fairlie was claiming damages after he said his reputation had been destroyed and his family torn apart. A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: “We are satisfied with the terms of the judgment.” …

BBC Scotland