We’re victims and you’ve let us down
Charity regulator blasted for not probing Scots Youth Parly
Two of the men who accused a former youth charity chief of sexual misconduct say they have been failed af ter a watchdog took no action.
Officials from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) looked at allegations about Jordan Linden, the former chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP).
The claims, revealed by the Sunday Mai l , accuse the current SNP councillor of sexual assault and harassment against young members of the organisation when he was chairman in 2016.
OSCR said it had contacted SYP last month after the scale of the allegations against Linden was revealed. But a spokesman has said no action will be taken against the organisat ion, which receives thousands of pounds in funding from both the UK and Scottish governments.
Last night two of the men who allege they were assaulted by Linden and failed by the SYP called for the OSCR to explain why it has decided to do nothing.
One, who told police he had been sexually assaulted by Linden, said: “It is disappointing that, despite clear evidence of mismanagement wi t h i n the SY P in its handling of the Linden incident and the ongoing fallout, the charities regulator has not demanded an explanation of what went wrong.
“Ben McKendrick was chief executive of the SYP when Linden was chair, chief executive when SYP conducted an internal investigation into
Linden’s conduct, chief executive when SYP concluded Linden had ‘no case to answer’, chief executive when a litany of allegations came out about Linden from his time in SYP and beyond, and is chief executive now as the organisation investigates itself.
“The conf l ict of interest is blindingly obvious.”
A second man, who also claims to have been harassed and assaulted by Linden while an SSYP member, saidsaid: “There has to bbe complete trantransparency. We werweren’t taken seriseriously before and it feels like it’s haphappening again.”
WWe asked the regulator what it was investigating and why officials were satisfied with the SYP’s conduct but the spokesman refused to say.
He said: “We have engaged with the charity trustees and they have provided us with the information we require. We are taking no further action at this time.”
When the claims were first made in 2016, the SYP’s chief executive carried out a closely guarded internal probe with a private law firm. The claims were then dismissed as false and Linden branded those making the allegations as “liars”.
In 2019 Linden was accused of groping and sexually harassing a young SNP member at a f lat in
Dundee after a gay Pride event. After our exposé, Linden stood down as North Lanarkshire Council leader.
The OSCR added: “We ’ ve determined this is a matter for the trustees to deal with and they have outlined a number of the actions they have taken or are implementing.”
The complaints about McKendrick were put to the SYP. A spokesman said: “The SYP investigated allegations made to us in 2016 and concluded no criminality had been established.
“After new allegations in 2017, we reported them to Police Scotland, who carried out their own investigation including into the allegations made to us in 2016. The police concluded no criminality had been established.
“The review into the processes used by SYP in 2016 does not involve the chief executive in any capacity other than providing evidence of processes used at the time and is being undertaken by an independent HR consultant, external adviser and SYP chair.”