NAT ON RACIST TEXTS RAP
Former aide to MP accused of anti-Muslim abuse
A FORMER councillor and aide to Nationalist MP Stewart Hosie was yesterday accused of threatening and abusing a Muslim SNP activist in a string of racist messages.
Craig Melville is alleged to have sent texts to Nadia El-Nakla the day after the Paris terror attacks in November 2015.
Melville was suspended by the SNP and quit as a Dundee City councillor when the allegations came to light last January. He was charged in April.
Yesterday, the case against him was called for the first time at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Court documents state that Melville faces a charge that, between November 13 and 15, 2015, at Marlee Road, Dundee, he behaved in a threatening and abusive manner towards Nadia, who works as a parliamentary assistant and senior case officer for Health Secretary Shona Robison.
Prosecutors say he behaved in a way “likely to cause a reasonable person fear and alarm” by sending messages that “contained threatening, abusive and derogatory remarks regarding Muslims”. Melville, 36, of Dundee, did not enter a plea to the charge under the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act, which is alleged to have been aggravated by religious prejudice.
Douglas McConnell, defending, said: “I’d ask that the case be continued without plea for three weeks.” Sheriff Simon Collins QC set another hearing for next month.