Salmond ‘probed over sex assaults on staff members’
ALEX Salmond was last night at the centre of extraordinary allegations that he sexually assaulted two staff members.
The former First Minister of Scotland is accused of carrying out the assaults at his official residence in 2013 while he was still in office.
It was reported that the allegations, which arose from an internal Scottish Government inquiry, had been passed to police.
However, Police Scotland said it was ‘not going to comment on whether an inquiry is ongoing’.
Last night Mr Salmond said he plans to take the Scottish Government to court over the allegations, which he described as ‘patently ridiculous’. The Scottish Government said it could not comment ‘for legal reasons’.
Mr Salmond married his wife Moira McGlashan in 1981 and the pair have no children.
He became First Minister in 2007 after the Scottish National Party’s first ever Holyrood election victory. He stepped down seven years later in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum defeat.
The 63-year-old last night issued a statement denying the accusations, adding that he had asked for a judicial review challenging the legality of the Scottish Government’s investigation.
He said: ‘For many months now, and on the advice of senior counsel, I have attempted to persuade the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government that she is behaving unlawfully in the application of a complaints procedure, introduced by her more than three years after I left office.
‘This is a procedure so unjust that even now I have not been allowed to see and therefore to properly challenge the case against me. I have not been allowed to see the evidence. I have tried everything, including offers of conciliation, mediation and legal arbitration to resolve these matters both properly and amicably.
‘This would have been in everybody’s interests, particularly those of the two complainants. All of these efforts have been rejected.’ He added: ‘It is with great reluctance that I have today launched a Judicial Review in the Court of Session which will decide the issue of the lawfulness of the procedure which has been used against me.
‘If I lose then I will have to answer to the complaints both comprehensively and publicly.
‘Until then I am bound to say nothing which would impinge on the Court proceedings.
‘If the Court of Session finds in my favour then the administration at the senior levels of the Scottish Government will have the most serious questions to answer.
‘In my opinion, the Permanent Secretary has decided to mount a process against me using an unlawful procedure which she herself introduced. I will let a real court decide whether it was lawful for her to do so.’
‘Patently ridiculous’