Prisoners lose voting bid at Supreme Court SCOTTISH murder George McGeoch and child killer Peter Chester have lost an appeal to the UK's senior court which would have given prisoners the right to vote. The judges unanimously rejected the pair's bid. McGeoch, from Glasgow, is serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of Eric Innes in Inverness. Chester, who is in his fifties, is serving life for raping and strangling seven-year-old Donna Marie Gillbanks in Blackpool in 1977. MSPs have rejected moves to allow some inmates to vote in the independence referendum. However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2005 that a blanket ban on serving prisoners going to the polls was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Supreme Court judges said this does not allow an individual right to vote, and the appeals do not need a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union.