Criminal Appeal - Bail Application:- On 31 January 2001 the applicant was convicted after trial of the murder of 270 persons after a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. The applicant was sentenced to imprisonment for life with a punishment part of twenty seven years. An appeal against conviction was on 14 March 2002 unanimously refused by a court of five judges. On 28 June 2007 the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the case to the Court of Appeal following an examination of the case. Thereafter, the applicant lodged a note of appeal which extended far beyond the reasons for the Commission's reference. Here the court considered whether the applicant should be admitted to bail pending the outcome of the appeal. A number of factors were placed before the court on behalf of the applicant:- (1) the grounds of appeal have a reasonable prospect of success; (2) the lapse of time until the likely disposal of this appeal; (3) The applicant is 56 years of age, married with several children and grandchildren and has been diagnosed as suffering from an incurable cancer; and (4) there was little prospect of the applicant absconding to Libya. Here the court considered the critical question being whether the applicant's present and future health was such that the court should, on compassionate grounds, admit him to bail against the gravity of the charge to which he had been convicted.