Secret supergrass named by Scotland's appeal court

The supergrass gave evidence during the trial of Christopher Hughes for the murder of Dutch crime writer Martin Kok

Scotland's appeal court has republished the name of a police informant whose secret identity was protected by another court last year.

The covert human intelligence source (CHIS) was a senior member of a serious organised crime group and gave evidence in a murder trial in March 2022.

A month earlier, in another case, the High Court granted an order prohibiting the publication of his name or image.

On Tuesday, the appeal court published a judgement linked to the murder trial.

In it they named the man alongside an account of his recruitment as a paid police informant.

The judgement was initially taken down after the BBC asked whether the court order from the first case was still in force.

The appeal court had been considering an appeal against the conviction of Christopher Hughes over the murder of Dutch crime blogger Martin Kok.

Kok, a convicted murderer, was shot dead outside a sex club in the Netherlands in December 2016.

Martin Kok died outside a club near Amsterdam in 2016

Hughes was a member of a serious organised crime group thought to have been run by James and Barry Gillespie, who are believed to have been killed while on the run in Brazil.

The informant was a member of the same group, which operated throughout Scotland and Europe, and gave evidence during Hughes' trial at the High Court in Glasgow last March.

Hughes was convicted of luring Kok to his death in what was described as a ruthless "execution".

He was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years before he can apply for parole.

Matter reviewed

In its judgement, published on Tuesday, the appeal court upheld Hughes' conviction for murdering Kok and named the informant.

It detailed how he became a CHIS after being approached by the police in July 2016 and was paid thousands of pounds for information.

The court opinion containing his name was online for several hours before the BBC queried its contents.

It was taken down on Tuesday afternoon.

A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service said: "The Contempt of Court order remains in place, the opinion has been removed and we are looking into this as a matter of urgency."

On Wednesday the courts service republished the judgement.

A spokesman said: "The opinion was removed from the website while we reviewed the matter. We are satisfied that a contempt of court order does not apply to this particular case and have republished the opinion."