NATIONALIST FACES JAIL FOR NAMING COMPLAINANT
A SCOTTISH nationalist activist has been told he faces a possible prison sentence for naming the women who claimed they had been sexually assaulted by Alex Salmond.
Clive Thomson, 52, admitted breaching a court order which prohibited the identification of the complainers who gave evidence at the former first minister’s trial last year.
Judges Lady Dorrian, Lord Pentland and Lord Turnbull heard how Thomson, of Rosyth, Fife, named the females on Twitter on two occasions in August last year. Lady Dorrian, who presided over the trial which resulted in Salmond being acquitted of all charges, passed the order during trial.
Journalists working in Scottish courts do not name complainers in sexual assault cases to prevent complainers privacy being breached.
But the former defence industry worker ignored the order and named the women on the social media network.
The court heard he knew that he wasn’t supposed to name the women but went ahead and did so anyway. On Friday, moments after Thomson admitted a contempt of court charge, defence advocate Mark Stewart QC urged the judges not to send his client to prison.
But Lady Dorrian said: “This is a very serious contempt of court. The second post in particular is clearly a deliberate post, it is done in the knowledge it should not be done. It is clearly done for political – with a small p – purposes and any reasonable person would understand the reason why complainers are expected to be given anonymity in records and the effect that naming them might have.
“The option of a custodial sentence is very much an open one. We are considering that.”
Salmond was cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault last year.
The women who made the allegations against Salmond include an SNP politician, a party worker and current and former Scottish government civil servants and officials.
The judges deferred sentence for the court to obtain reports.