A CLYDEBANK fingerprint officer has won her job back thanks to a Supreme Court decision ending nearly a decade-long fight.

Fiona McBride was fired after she and three colleagues said a fingerprint at a 1997 murder crime scene belonged to police officer Shirley McKie. Ms McKie was later cleared of perjury and awarded compensation.

By 2001, Ms McBride was suspended from duty and when an independent investigation re-instated the four fingerprint officers, they were kept back from their normal duties.

The four colleagues were offered a deal to leave their jobs in 2006 as the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO) became part of the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA), now the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).

Three accepted redundancy but Ms McBride declined and was later sacked.

An employment tribunal ruled in her favour in 2009, ordering £31,000 in compensation and her old fingerprint job back. An appeal went in favour of the SPSA, as did the Court of Session.

Last week the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously in her favour and the employment tribunal can now revise the amount of compensation.

In a statement, Ms McBride, 48, said she “felt very sorry” for Ms McKie, who herself got £750,000 in compensation for what happened to her.

Ms McBride said: "I want to make it clear from the outset that this legal action is not, and never has been, about Shirley McKie.

"I don’t know Ms McKie and I have never met her. When she lost her job I felt very sorry for her, despite the fact she received £750,000 in compensation.

"I loved working as a fingerprint examiner. I always took great care to do my job to the best of my ability. And yet I was unfairly dismissed.

"From the outset I was not interested in compensation for the loss of my job. I just wanted it back.

"Now, thanks to the support of my solicitors, Thorley Stephenson, and the five judges who heard my appeal, this is now possible."

The dispute centred on whether or not Ms McBride could be reinstated on restricted duties - as she could not give evidence in court due to the likelihood of the McKie case being raised by defence lawyers.

The SPA argued that returning her to the role of fingerprint officer without court duties, the role she had performed in the immediate aftermath of the McKie case, amounted to the tribunal amending Ms McBride's contract - a move judges are not legally allowed to do.

However, Judge Lord Hodge said: "In reading the employment tribunal’s reasons, I ask myself whether the tribunal was seeking to impose a contractual limitation on Ms McBride in the reinstatement order, which removed the excluded duties from her job description, or was simply recognising a practical limitation on the scope of her work caused by circumstances beyond her control and that of her employer.

"I am satisfied that it was the latter."

A spokesperson for Scottish Police Authority said: "We note the judgement in what is the latest in a long-running legacy employment issue.

"SPA will consider the details of the judgement carefully in determining its response and next steps."