EX-SNP minister considered suicide over harassment scandal
A FORMER SNP minister who was suspended from Holyrood over a sexual harassment scandal has told how he was almost driven to suicide.
Mark Mcdonald, who last week announced he is standing down as the MSP for Aberdeen Donside in 2021, said he twice considered taking his own life.
He wrote a suicide note but was stopped from killing himself after his former wife woke up early and discovered it.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said: “I felt there was no way back and I realised people would be prepared to believe anything that was written or said about me.”
Mr Mcdonald quit as childcare minister in November 2017 after sending an “inappropriate” message to a woman, and was suspended from the SNP.
A party inquiry later found he had shown “inappropriate” and “persistent” behaviour towards two women, causing distress. He quit the SNP in March 2018.
The Commissioner For Ethical Standards In Public Life concluded he had “failed to treat one witness with respect, and that his conduct towards her involved sexual harassment”.
However, Mr Mcdonald rejected calls to stand down as an MSP and sits in the Scottish Parliament as an Independent.
MSPS voted to suspend him from Holyrood for a month in 2018.
The former minister said he considered committing suicide shortly after his suspension from the SNP, and again four months later, in March 2018.
He added: “After my suspension there seemed to be a mentality among some MSPS that I should have been given a harsher punishment.
“I never said my conduct did not merit any sanction and I duly served the punishment. I hope that, since, I have demonstrated I have truly reflected on my behaviour and hope that most people who encounter me would say I am not the person I was in 2017.”
He continued: “Coming back to Parliament, I felt I was being punished multiple times for the same thing. I haven’t spoken about this before but recent events have made me feel like we can’t carry on with this culture where people can’t atone for their mistakes.
“At Holyrood we talk a good game about these things. I haven’t seen any of it from within the SNP, with a few honourable exceptions.”