Alex Prentice

Who is Alex Prentice?

Alex Prentice QC is a leading Scottish lawyer.

He has held some senior posts at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the body which normally carries out prosecutions in Scotland. He became an assistant principal advocate in 2009, and then the principal advocate depute. With the restructuring on 1 August 2011 he became the senior crown counsel.

Unusually, he qualified by taking the Law Society examinations rather than a university degree.

He qualified as a solicitor in 1983 and as a Solicitor Advocate in 1994. He practised as a defence solicitor for 21 years. In 2004 he became the first Solicitor Advocate from outwith the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to be appointed as an Advocate Depute. He was appointed as a Senior Advocate Depute in 2006 and became a QC in 2007.

He has prosecuted a number of significant cases including the shotgun murder at the "Marmion" public house in Edinburgh, the murder of Jolanta Bledaite and HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan. In 2012 he twice won a murder conviction without a body in the murder of Suzanne Pilley and the retrial in the murder of Arlene Fraser. Further to this, Prentice won an appeal lodged by Fraser in 2013.