Ex-Sturgeon aide: Heads must now roll over Salmond
A FORMER adviser to Nicola Sturgeon has called on Scotland’s top civil servant to quit as the fall-out from the Alex Salmond trial continues to rock the Government.
Noel Dolan has called on Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans to resign for the ‘good’ of the Government after the former First Minister was acquitted in the High Court this week.
Mr Salmond was found not guilty on 12 charges including sexual assault and attempted rape, while the jury said a charge of sexual assault with intent to rape was not proven.
The verdict came after a 11-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh during which concerns were raised over a political conspiracy against the former SNP leader.
The criminal case was preceded by a botched internal Scottish Government investigation into two 'allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr Salmond.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Mr Dolan said: ‘The original inquiry was a mess. Leslie Evans should stand down.
‘For the good of the Civil Service, she should go. As she cost the Scottish taxpayer a large amount of money, she should have gone in 2019.’
In 2018, a Civil Service probe was launched into allegations relating to Mr Salmond’s time as first minister.
Following a judicial review, a judge ruled in 2019 that the internal investigation had been biased and unlawful.
It cost the taxpayer £600,000 in legal fees, with the Government forced to pay for Mr Salmond’s fees.
Although Mrs Evans did not lead the investigation herself, she has repeatedly been criticised over the probe given her role as the top civil servant.
Despite criticism over the fiasco, she has remained in her job and even had her contract extended until 2022.
During a procedural hearing ahead of the criminal trial, Mr Salmond’s defence team claimed the Government and some employees had turned to the criminal process to ‘discredit’ the former politician after he won the civil case.
However, Judge Lady Dorrian rejected an application for this evidence to be led at the trial. She ruled that the judicial review was ‘wholly irrelevant’ to the allegations facing Mr Salmond. In a text message read out at a hearing ahead of the trial, Mr Salmond’s QC Gordon Jackson claimed Mrs Evans had texted a civil servant saying: ‘We may have lost the battle – but we will win the war.’
Mr Dolan said: ‘A general may survive a battle, but if she loses a war, she should go.’
Chris McEleny, a member of the SNP’s ruling body, has said that Mrs Evans should be the first to go, with Mr Salmond’s allies – including MP Kenny MacAskill – calling for a raft of resignations from the Government and party.
Nationalist MP Joanna Cherry has called for an investigation into the SNP’s handling of complaints.
Following his acquittal on Monday, Mr Salmond pledged that evidence of a conspiracy against him would be made public – but said that this would be after the coronavirus crisis has cleared. He said that ‘certain evidence’ would now ‘see the light of day’.
Giving evidence during his trial, the former First Minister said that allegations against him were ‘deliberate fabrications for political purposes’.
Meanwhile, Mr Salmond’s allies have echoed concerns that he was targeted by a political conspiracy.
Nationalist MSP Alex Neil said: ‘If the organs of the state, like the civil service, the Crown Office and government advisers, are involved in any such conspiracy, that’s a very, very serious matter.’
‘Leslie Evans should step down’