Top lawyer's blitz call

SCOTLAND'S top lawyer is demanding urgent action to stop foreign criminals flooding into the country - just days after landing a murder conviction against Slovakian fiend Marek Harcar.

Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC will call on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to tackle the spiralling menace of violent crooks who are taking advantage of our soft- touch border controls.

Evil Harcar had an astonishing THIRTEEN previous convictions when he arrived in Scotland. Just ten days later, the monster raped and murdered tragic Moira Jones in Glasgow's Queen's Park.

Legal insiders revealed Ms Angiolini was so disturbed by the shocking trial she now plans to contact Ms Smith and urge her to crack down on the growing problem - before more innocent victims suffer the same horrific fate as Moira.

A Crown Office insider said: "It's an unprecedented move. But, as our most senior laywer, the Lord Advocate feels something needs to be done to clamp down on these criminals coming in.

"It's something we need to address - I fear we'll be seeing quite a few cases like Moira Jones over the next few years."

Harcar was caged for life at the High Court in Glasgow this week after being found guilty of Moira's brutal slaying.

The beast dragged the 40-year-old businesswoman into the park before sexually assaulting her and savagely battering her to death last May.

The 33-year-old had already been convicted of a string of violent offences outside the UK, with two committed in the Czech Republic and the rest in Slovakia.

The harrowing case was the first Ms Angiolini has handled since landing the job as Scotland's top prosecutor in 2006. Insiders said the trial had left her "deeply concerned".

Our source added: "The Lord Advocate is aware of the positive role immigrants play. However, she's also aware that there is a small element who come to Scotland purely to commit crime.

"She's concerned people are able to come here without thorough checks being done on their identities at the border.

"Unfortunately, she can't do anything to reform the current arrangements. But she wants the Home Secretary to study ways in which they can improve existing arrangements and how they can prevent serious offenders like Marek Harcar from entering the country."

Legal experts are calling for a Europe-wide database of offenders, so immigration officials can check the background of anyone coming to Britain.

At the moment, only information on terror suspects is shared - meaning rapists and murderers can slip through the net.

But police chiefs have warned the system is doomed by the lack of up-to-date computer equipment in eastern Europe.

Stephen House, Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, said: "In western Europe there is an increasing criminal records database.

"But when you start going into eastern Europe, it becomes extremely patchy.

"You are dealing with countries where they don't have computerised records - it's all on cards.

"In terms of checking people as they come in, there's no database to check against." Ms Angiolini is set to ask Ms Smith, above- in charge of UK immigration policy - to join with other European ministers and take urgent action.

Our insider said: "The only way to solve this problem is for it to be addressed at the highest level.

"We need the Government to raise it with their European allies and convince them of the real need for a solution.

"It's not just the UK that is affected - there's nothing to stop a pervert convicted of molesting a child in Inverness packing up and heading for Spain.

"Once there, there's nothing to prevent him from abusing more children.

"The only way we're going to stop all this is with the creation of a massive computer database.

"We need to help the police forces in the countries of the former Soviet bloc to modernise their methods and equipment.

"The big issue facing European law enforcement over the next 20 years is the fall- out from people taking advantage of free movement between EU countries."

Evil Harcar was ordered to serve at least 25 years behind bars for a crime that judge Lord Bracadale described as "a level of wickedness that is rarely encountered".

It later emerged that in February 2000 he was sentenced to seven months for assault, and in November 2005 he served a year-long prison term for burglary.

He was found guilty of murdering Moira, below, just weeks after Lithuanians Vitas Plytnykas and Aleksandras Skirda, 20, were caged at the High Court in Edinburgh for killing 35-year-old Jolanta Bledaite in Arbroath in March 2008.

Violent ex-Russian Army soldier Plytnykas, 41, also had a previous conviction after he killed a man in a knife attack in Germany in 2000.

The News of the World can reveal it will cost taxpayers more than £1MILLION to keep Harcar behind bars to serve his latest sentence - a bill of £42,000 a year.

Last night, Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken hit out: "It's a disgraceful amount of money to be spending on a man like Harcar - especially when there are other parts of society that could do with the cash.

"It's time we stepped up our vigilance and anyone entering Britain with a custodial conviction for violent or sexual offences should be barred from entering the country if they are a non-EU citizen, or their passports endorsed and their whereabouts kept on record if they are an EU citizen."

The massive prison bill also sparked calls for murderer Harcar to be sent back home to Slovakia to serve his time.

Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "This is a disgusting strain on resources. It's outrageous that taxpayers have to foot the bill for keeping this animal in a Scottish prison.

"Our Government needs to tell the European Union that we have to take back control of borders - it's as simple as that."

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