Salmondsex claims,Trump protestsand justiceatlast forCelticBoys Clubvictims

NEWS REVIEW OF THE YEAR, PART TWO

DONALD Trump landed in Scotland in July to summer sun and a chilly reception.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets waving banners condemning American President poetically, as “a pure f*d”.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon ignored his visit and chose to lead the gay Pride march in Glasgow instead.

Later that month, we told how an 11-year-old schoolboy was racially abused by children as young as five.

Tiliai Nakau, who is mixed race, was also attacked with sticks by fellow pupils when he was at Niddrie Mill Primary School in Edinburgh.

In one incident, his jotter was scrawled with vile racial slurs, including the N-word.

Tiliai was so unhappy, he asked his parents to send him to boarding school and he is now happily settled at the Queen Victoria school, near Dunblane.

In August, we continued to expose the hidden crisis of combat stress faced by our military as we told of five heroes who took their lives in one week.

Three days later, we reported on the additional death of soldier Ryan Smith of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, who killed himself after suffering PTSD.

Defence chiefs don’t collate suicide figures for servicemen and women so the scale of the problem is not known.

But a Daily Record investigation found 30 ex-servicemen had killed themselves between January 2017 and August this year.

Later that month, we broke the biggest political story in Scotland with the exclusive that Alex Salmond had been reported to police over claims he sexually assaulted two staff members.

In September, we also reported that concerns over Salmond’s “bullying” of staff were raised by trade unions almost a decade ago. Salmond resigned from the SNP and denied the allegations which he plans to fight in court.

In, September we revealed how Scotland’s NHS staff are at breaking point.

In a shocking interview, 40-year-old nurse Susan described a “pressurecooker atmosphere” where mentally ill patients were placed alongside the terminally ill receiving palliative care.

She talked of “dodging punches” and being verbally abused by patients placed in general wards, more suited to specialist psychiatric wings.

In October, we revealed how the Saudi doctor accused of killing and dismembering journalist Jamal Khashoggi learned his skills in Scotland.

Dr al-Tubaigy is said to have used drugs to keep Khashoggi conscious as torturers cut his fingers off.

Earlier that month, in a year of escalating gang-related gun crime, we told how Brian McGloin was left fighting for his life after two masked gunmen burst in to his flat and shot him.

There was justice in November for the victims of sexual abuse at Celtic Boys’ Club when predator Jim Torbett was jailed for six years.

Last month saw the deadliest wildfire in California history, which killed more than 30 people and burned homes to the ground, including that of Scots Hollywood star Gerard Butler.

And earlier this month we told how tens of thousands of Scots would be left penniless at Christmas after being transferred to Universal Credit due to a five-week waiting time.

This month, we revisited the Celtic Boys Club scandal and told the story of Kenny Campbell who was abused by Torbett as a child for years.

He says his torture continued when he signed for Celtic FC because Torbett was a regular at Parkhead.