Anger over payments to convicted councillor
BY JOHN JEFFAY reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk
A SHAMED Tory councillor has received more than £8000 of public money since being convicted of sexually assaulting a man at a civic event.
Aberdeen’s former deputy Lord Provost Alan Donnelly, 65, is facing calls to donate his salary to charity amid claims it’s an “insult to his victim and our city” for him to continue to collect a wage.
Donnelly was paid £8316.33 between the date of his conviction last December and May this year. More than half of the cash came while he was barred from the city’s Town House, pending an investigation by the ethics watchdog.
Lib Dem group leader Ian Yuill has urged Donnelly to give the money to charity.
He said: “Alan Donnelly should have resigned as a councillor the day he was convicted of sexual assault – and should resign today.
“His refusal to resign is an insult to his victim and Aberdeen. It adds insult to injury that he continues to receive a councillor’s salary.
“If he had any decency, he’d donate the salary he’s received since his conviction to a charity supporting survivors of sexual assault.”
After a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, Donnelly was found guilty of committing a sexual assault at a function in the city. He had denied touching his victim’s face, hair and body and kissing him on the face.
He was sentenced to eight months supervision, put on the sex offenders’ list and ordered to pay his victim £800 compensation.
When contacted, Donnelly said: “I’m still a councillor and anything I get paid is in the public domain.”