Twice-married senior policeman, 49, faces court after ‘having sex with an ex-Scottish Premiership footballer’s wife, 41, in a car at a park and ride’
- Gareth Blair, 49, and Claire Makel, 41, ‘had sex at park and ride in Edinburgh’
- Makel, also accused of public indecency, is married to footballer Lee Makel
- Blair is head of Scotland’s elite crime squad Gartcosh Crime Campus
A senior policeman is to appear in court accused of having sex with a footballer’s wife in a car at a park and ride.
Prosecutors claim Gareth Blair and Claire Makel were ‘undressed and engaged in sexual activity’ at the car park in Hermiston, Edinburgh.
Blair, 49, and Makel, 41, who is married to former Hearts and Livingston player Lee Makel, are accused of public indecency on April 16 and May 21 last year.
Neither accused was present for a hearing which was scheduled to take place at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday before Sheriff Roderick Flynn, having been excused attendance at an earlier procedural hearing.
Both Blair and Makel have yet to enter a plea. The case is next set to call on February 12.
Twice-married Blair was head of Scotland’s elite crime squad at Gartcosh Crime Campus in Lanarkshire. He has also served on secondment in Northern Ireland.
Blair was made the capital’s divisional commander in June 2018 but was suspended and replaced by Sean Scott in May last year after his arrest.
A biography on the Police Scotland website describes the father of one as a fitness fan who loves golf and holidays.
It also emerged yesterday that a policeman is to stand trial charged with causing a serious road crash while under the influence of drugs.
Makel, 41, is married to former Hearts and Livingston player Lee Makel (pictured in 1999)
PC George Shearer, of Alford, Aberdeenshire, is accused of leaving one man badly hurt and a police dog dead after the collision on the A90 near Auchiries, Aberdeenshire.
Prosecutors also claim the 49-year-old had taken tablets he had seized from a suspect on the day of the smash – February 28, 2017. Shearer yesterday appeared for a short hearing at the High Court in Glasgow.
He is accused of causing serious injury to Gordon Morrison by dangerous driving ‘while under the influence of controlled drugs’.
The charge claims he lost control of his van, crossed onto the wrong side of the road and into the path of Mr Morrison’s vehicle.
A separate charge alleges Shearer did ‘neglect or violate his duties’.
It is claimed he stopped and searched a man in Aberdeen on February 28 and found on him a number of tablets, said to be zoplicone and Xanax.
Shearer is accused of seizing them but then returning a ‘quantity’ to the man before keeping some for personal use and taking them. The charge further states he did ‘fail to take any other lawful measures’ to investigate a criminal offence.
The PC faces five other charges of neglecting his duties. It is claimed he failed to lodge alleged substances at a police station after a number of searches of suspects in Aberdeen between September 2015 and January 2017.
Tony Lenehan, defending, told the court: ‘George Shearer pleads not guilty to the charges.’
Both the advocate and prosecutor Angela Gray said they were ready for a trial to be set.
Lord Turnbull fixed a trial due to begin in June in Aberdeen.